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"This would not be a group that would bubble up to high priority,” Eric Topol, a cardiologist and the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told The Washington Post. “Just smoking doesn’t cut it in my view,” arguing that only smokers also suffering from a chronic respiratory condition should get early vaccines.
Later on in this article, we have this gem
Quote:
But Esther Choo, an emergency physician and professor at Oregon Health and Science University, says it’s wrong to de-prioritize smokers or others with substance abuse.
“There’s a very steep and judgmental slippery slope when we start to say that one group or the other does not deserve vaccines based on your health behavior, particularly when we understand smoking to be a substance use disorder,” Choo told The Post.
She added, “It’s a nuanced and balanced decision, but I actually agree with considering high-risk factors when it comes to vaccine prioritizing, and smoking is a high-risk factor.”
But Topol said many smokers don’t actually have the underlying medical issues that would put them at higher risk of covid-19 complications.
“Just being a smoker without chronic obstructive lung disease, that isn’t considered a coexisting condition,” he said. “It doesn’t deserve special priority in my view. If they have lung disease, asthma, diabetes, that’s a different matter.”