Well, well. It seems like someone out there should have pants which are on fire, doesn't it?

Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, politicians, public health authorities, and anti-vaping scientists were trying to tell us that smoking and vaping made someone more likely to contract the virus. Many of these claims were made with zero evidence. But now, it seems like—gasp!—that was a big fat lie.

...Shocking nobody.

Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, tweeted on Jun. 11th:

In the tweet, he said: "Scientific American's @tanyalewis314 loves data, so now that we have actual patient data and not teens responding to an online survey (and finding COVID numbers way out of whack with CDC data), I look forward to the follow up."

This was accompanied with a link to an article talking about how smoking and vaping may increase the risk of a severe Coronavirus infection, which we have since learned, is a massive pile of untruths, thanks to the folks over at the Mayo Clinic.

...No, no—I said Mayo Clinic, not 'mayo factory.'

A study published by Mayo Clinic researchers in the Journal of Primary Care and Community Health revealed there was no scientific evidence which supported the claim that vaping increased the odds of being infected with SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

The data from over 69,000 patient visits between September 2019—November 2020 was gathered and analyzed. None of the current (or former) vaping and smoking use among those patients was associated with COVID-19 diagnoses. In fact, in the case of current smokers, the researchers found that they were less likely to contract COVID-19 than non-smokers.

There have also been a litany of other studies globally which have reached the same results; meaning the actual data is the exact opposite of what public health figures and anti-vaping officials have been trying to force-feed down our collective throats for the last year and a half.

How bad has this misinformation been? Let me tell you. In March of 2020 both the Surgeon General, Jerome Adams, and the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, gave us a double-whammy of bullshit. The Mayor made the baseless claim that “If you are a smoker or a vaper, that does make you more vulnerable,” while the Surgeon General openly speculated that vaping could be the reason that American coronavirus infections skewed toward younger people more than in other countries.

Of course, neither of those things turned out to actually be true, but why let a little thing like scientific fact get in the way of spreading fear and disinformation for your own personal agendas?

In addition to those two morons telling you things with no grounds in actual facts, on April 1st of 2020, Illinois congressman, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi asked the FDA to wipe vaping products from the market completely, also claiming there was truth to the baseless lies and misinformation which the mayor of New York and Surgeon General both tried to claim were facts.

Pictured: The face of the worst April Fool's prankster of all time.

Turns out that, not only was ol' Raja being ridiculously stupid, he was also being dead serious. (Fortunately, everyone probably assumed he was making a joke. Which, to be fair, he technically was, just not deliberately.)

Then, in August, more lies and deceit came rolling in, in what was one of the most widely-spread pieces of misinformation to be put out there. News media outlets everywhere were reporting the story of Stanford anti-vaping activist Bonnie Halpern-Felsher and her two colleagues. They'd published a study which (falsely) claimed that vaping and smoking adolescents and young adults were five to seven times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 than non-vapers.

This study lacked any tangible association between any current exclusive vaper or smoker with COVID-19, however, making the data incomplete and very refutable.

Plus, considering the fact that COVID tests were almost impossible to come by at the time, where did the data come from? Who was testing these supposed teenagers, and how? Let's not overlook the fact that most of the hospitalized COVID patients were elderly, or middle-aged. Turns out, the data came from a few online surveys filled out by teenagers; (who are demonstrably famous for being honest on the internet, as we all know.) 

Halpern-Felsher's work was quickly discredited and disproven by peers and other researchers. The data she'd presented, claiming that "vaping and smoking adolescents and young adults were five to seven times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 than non-vapers," was actually based on only a handful of answers from the survey they performed.

News outlets aren't exactly popular for retracting debunked stories, or making ratings by lowering the anxiety they've raised in the public, so it's fairly unlikely that they'll try to correct the misinformation that's been spread; and even if they did, how many of the people who believed it are likely to continue believing it?

...In the end, it's doubtful that any of the politicians and anti-vapers who've used this study to boost their own images will step up and admit they were spreading false information. So, we need to start spreading the word in their place, because waiting for a politician to do the right thing is a long wait for a train that's not coming.

Read the truth published by the Mayo Clinic here.

Spread the truth from the Mayo Clinic around. This is the real data. Tell your friends, post it to your social media, and make the world around you aware of the fact that we're being lied to (again.) When the lies come from the mouths of those who are supposed to be experts, most folks won't question it whatsoever.

The people we're supposed to be trusting with facts simply don't care that they don't have the facts right at all.