Help MOVE With COVID Data
Dr Carmen Escrig has asked vapers to help provide data to counter the anti-tobacco harm reduction lobbyists
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by Dave Cross
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Carmen received her doctorate in Cell Biology and Genetics at the Autonoma University of Madrid and gone on to participate in several research projects in molecular virology. As an expert, she is concerned about the spread of disinformation by anti-vape activists during the COVID pandemic.
Addressing vapers across Europe, Carmen wrote: “As you know, the terrible situation regarding COVID-19 is being taken advantage of by the usual anti-THR lobbies to continue carrying out campaigns of harassment and destabilization against vaping. During the last weeks, headlines around the world are scaring vapers and smokers by claiming, WITHOUT SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE, that vapers and smokers are more likely to become infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”
“To fight this misinformation campaign, Professor Josep María Ramón Torrell, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Chief of the Tobacco Control Unit at the Bellvitge Hospital of Barcelona, who is also member of the Spanish Platform for Tobacco Harm Reduction, is asking for the participation of vapers to collect data for a preliminary survey. This is being done in collaboration with the University of Barcelona, the International Vaccination Center of the Hospital de Bellvitge and the University of Milan.”
“Since it is obvious that not all vapers have been tested for COVID-19, we can only rely on the symptoms of this population group to obtain a possible relationship between vaping and SARS-CoV-2 infection. The conclusions of these data will therefore only be solid if the sample size is as large as possible. Therefore, we are asking all international vaping groups to please collaborate by asking their colleagues to take the survey.”
“In collaboration with the universities mentioned before, the survey will also obtain data on the mobility and behaviour of the general population in order to model possible expansions of the virus in the medium term, so we will also be collaborating with scientists by providing them very useful information in the fight against the virus.”
The survey won’t take more than 2 minutes to complete so Carmen is urging everybody to take part. If you’re using a mobile phone to complete the survey, switch from vertical to horizontal mode. See below for the link to the survey in English.
Related:
Survey in English – [link]
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave 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 start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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