Covid Is More Like Smoking Than the Flu

[applegrove]

Covid Is More Like Smoking Than the Flu

February 20, 2022 at 10:52 am EST By Taegan Goddard 66 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2022/02/20/covid-is-more-like-smoking-than-the-flu/

"SNIP.....

The Atlantic: “The end state of this pandemic may indeed be one where COVID comes to look something like the flu. Both diseases, after all, are caused by a dangerous respiratory virus that ebbs and flows in seasonal cycles.”

“But I’d propose a different metaphor to help us think about our tenuous moment: The ‘new normal’ will arrive when we acknowledge that COVID’s risks have become more in line with those of smoking cigarettes—and that many COVID deaths, like many smoking-related deaths, could be prevented with a single intervention. The pandemic’s greatest source of danger has transformed from a pathogen into a behavior. Choosing not to get vaccinated against COVID is, right now, a modifiable health risk on par with smoking.”

......SNIP"

[crickets]

1. Interesting and apt comparison. K&R

[pidge]

4. Not apt at all..smoking takes years to kill Covid takes weeks .

[crickets]

5. True, but the differences between the two are addressed in the article.

The author is aware that there isn't a 1:1 correlation. The piece is still a valuable and eye-opening discussion of social responsibility and social/health costs associated with deliberate decisions of some to refuse behaviors that would decrease illness and death for themselves and others.

[cadoman]

7. agree this article is garbage, how can you even compare COVID with those things?

We need to stop minimizing this shit. It's a fucking PANDEMIC that has necessitated emergency declarations and measures the world over.

Stop comparing it with flu or fucking smoking. It's nowhere near the same stratosphere.

[NickB79]

8. Given all the lasting damage it seems to do to the heart, lungs and kidneys

A lot of COVID survivors have had years taken off their lives already. We'll see elevated death rates for the next 20 years from this thing.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. I'm careful about "second hand smoke" from Covid, so I continue to wear a mask. . . . nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Wigged out on vax disinformation is more like bad meth than nicotine. . . . nt

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Prevention Through Behavior Aside...

...I think it's a silly comparison.
Underestimating the addictive nature of smoking to make this comparison is foolish.
It's a million times harder to quit smoking than it is to get a shot or wear a mask.
The behavioral connection is fine, but I hate it. They're not really analogous.

[NickB79]

9. Having never smoked, I don't know the addictiveness from experience

But in rural and conservative areas, there's a HUGE amount of peer pressure to not vaccinate or wear a mask, if all of your peers are not just against it but actively using it as a litmus test of your politics (how messed up is that?).

That kind of pressure can be very powerful, if you risk isolating yourself from friends and family. Hence why we've seen news stories about people in small towns getting vaccinated in secret.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. I Don't Doubt That At All

But, that's not what the author set up as the premise.
And, that addiction is not contagious. A reasonable debate can be had about "how bad, bad is" regarding secondhand smoke.
But, there's far from any consensus that secondhand smoke causes a nicotine addiction.
So, the deleterious effects are not comparable as one us contagious & the other is not.
But, I have no doubt what you say is true about vaxxing especially in rural enclaves.