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CAPHRA Slams WHO

The World Health Organization has been slammed by the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates for attempting to link vaping with COVID-19

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The World Health Organization (WHO)| has been slammed by the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) for attempting to link vaping with COVID-19. It says WHO’s efforts have been “completely discredited” by a significant recent study originating in the United States from researchers at the Mayo Clinic.

Research by the Mayo Clinic (1) (2) published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, titled ‘Electronic Cigarette Use Is Not Associated with COVID-19 Diagnosis’ involved nearly 70,000 patients. The study concluded that e-cigarettes “do not appear to increase susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection”.

 

Nancy Loucas, CAPHRA Executive Coordinator, told Planet of the Vapes: “For over a year, we’ve had to endure WHO’s latest round of orchestrated lies about vaping. Outrageously, various WHO briefings and materials on COVID have stated that ‘e-cigarette use may increase the risk of infection’, without offering any scientific basis whatsoever.

 

Last year a review of global medical research into the relationship between vaping and contracting COVID-19 showed no such connection. In fact, Ms Loucas says debate continues on whether nicotine may actually exert protective effects. Regardless, nothing seemed to stop WHO from peddling its scare tactics about safer nicotine products with the media keen to publish stories that were speculative at best.

 

Thankfully, credible, trusted media sources such as Forbes have given this latest Mayo Clinic study the credit it’s due, headlining ‘No, Vaping Doesn’t Make You More Susceptible To Coronavirus’. Good on Forbes (3) for profiling the evidence, not profiting from all the emotion,” she continued.

 

In the referenced article, Forbes’ science reporter notes that any research claiming an association between vaping and COVID has received widespread media coverage. At the same time, “studies producing null results have been largely ignored, leading to outcome reporting bias.”

 

CAPHRA (4) believes the global pandemic provided WHO with a unique opportunity to promote better access to, and wider use of, safer nicotine products. Instead, WHO doubled down on its war against vaping, missing a once in a lifetime opportunity to switch more of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers onto vaping – scientifically deemed 95% less harmful than smoking.

 

WHO has continued to deliberately peddle lies about vaping. WHO’s actions have stopped millions of adult smokers from quitting deadly combustible cigarettes. In fact, while WHO has been scaring people about vaping and COVID, smoking cessation rates have slowed or reversed in many countries. Lockdowns and stress have not helped, but we didn’t have to see more smoking,” Loucas concluded.

 

CAPHRA says it’s keen to shed some light on the Mayo Clinic study. Unlike previous studies, it’s a much larger population sample, exuding superior methodology. However, because of its headline findings, the study has received virtually no coverage. CAPHRA says it will continue to expose WHO’s war on vaping and the bullying tactics applied.

 

References:

  1. Electronic Cigarette Use Is Not Associated with COVID-19 Diagnosis - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34109870/
  2. Mayo Study Finds No Covid-Vape Link, POTV - https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/news/health-studies/2021-07-09_mayo-study-finds-no-covid-vape-link.html
  3. No, Vaping Doesn’t Make You More Susceptible To Coronavirus - https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2021/06/30/e-cigarettes-vaping-covid-19-coronavirus/
  4. Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates – https://caphraorg.net/
Dave Cross avatar

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV
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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.

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