Paul Bates

I think I'm going to just start retweeting Public Health lies. PH is morally bankrupt, ideologically captured. Mostly just BS artists. If I can keep my nausea in check, I'll make it a mega-thread. Exhibit #1:

Over 10 yrs ago my asthma inhaler went generic and became cheap. But the govt said the propellant was bad for the environment, mandated a new type, and I was back to buying branded for $$$$. Recently that new type went generic as well. Cheap again! Yay! Except now the govt says this propellant is *also* unsafe, and will be banning it, forcing everyone to buy a (patented of course) newer more expensive type yet again. Funny how the timing works that drugs become “unsafe/environmentally bad” juuuust as the pharmaceutical patents run out. Very curious, that.

@hepler10112 @data_republican @Arrogance_0024 This may be one of the most subtly funny posts of all time.

@data_republican @Arrogance_0024 For sale: French WWII rifle. Never fired.

Lose all this to rescue 1 pilot and call it your greatest military success of all time.

@3YearLetterman Streets, toilets, immigration, nightlife, restaurants, convenience store food, crime, trains, whiskey...

I literally cannot name one thing that Japan 🇰🇷 does better than America

I’m a European about to fly to America for the first time. I’ve been told to prepare for: - Airport the size of a small country - Someone aggressively welcoming me to have a great day - A sandwich that costs $24 - Tipping at the airport. At the airport. - XXXL portion sizes Will report back.

How long until someone "re-imagines" some classic movie or tv show using AI.

The same result. Every. Single. Time. #NotAboutHealth

"Nicotine, isolated and dosed responsibly, behaves less like a vice and more like a mental aid." Well-written article devoid of the usual morl panic. A welcome rarity from @SpliceToday2022 splicetoday.com/pop-culture/ni…

@EveeTalk Ecigs are the single most effective quit method out there. Patch, gum work, but are probably beaten by more enjoyable pouches now but no real studies out yet on comparative efficacy.

I got a serious question. My husband and I are smokers (just normal cigarettes) We both have been thinking about quitting. But because I have been smoking for over half of my life, it's such a habit. Anyone that stopped smoking, what helped you? I'm open for suggestions, because I don't know if I could just stop and never more pick up a cigarette.

@MAGAStormX I've no doubt that there's a ton of fraud here, but having large "single family" homes registered as assisted living is perfectly normal. Super ripe for fraud, but not just because of size.

🚨 BREAKING: A MASSIVE new scam just blew open in Minnesota Regular single-family homes are being rebranded as “assisted living facilities” to drain taxpayer money. And the numbers are insane. Here’s what investigators found 👇 • Assisted living programs in Minnesota are growing 2× faster than other state programs • Payments are exploding at 10–15× the rate of everything else • Shell companies are being used to set up many of these locations • New “facilities” are popping up all over Minnesota cities • A shocking number are tied to known money-laundering scammers One of these places looks like an average house on a quiet street. But on paper, it bills itself as an assisted living facility. And it’s pulling in huge taxpayer dollars. Now look at these numbers 🤯 • Minneapolis (pop. ~425,000): 169 facilities • St. Paul (pop. ~307,000): 83 facilities • Brooklyn Center (pop. ~30,000): 106 facilities • Brooklyn Park (pop. ~84,000): 181 facilities Yes… more than Minneapolis, a city FIVE TIMES larger. And it gets worse. One of these “assisted living” operations is owned by a man indicted for laundering $1 MILLION in the Feeding Our Future scandal. 📌 These facilities pulled in $2.3 MILLION in state money last year alone 📌 According to Minnesota Reformer, that same individual has received $49 MILLION since 2016 This isn’t a coincidence. This isn’t mismanagement. This is a system being exploited on purpose. How much longer are taxpayers supposed to fund this? 👀

@lionesspike No, it's a stupid show with very little to say and what little it does have to say takes forever to get there.

no cause if you scrolled your phone during this scene bc “carol was just playing with fireworks” then literally none of her actions in the next 2 episodes make any sense

After 16 years, my @YouTube channel (GrimmGreen) was terminated today with no real explanation. I’ve built my content around harm reduction, helping adult smokers quit, and advocating for science-based policies. This feels like a huge mistake. If you believe in THR, free speech, and the mission we’ve been on, please help me get YouTube’s attention. @TeamYouTube I’m asking for a real human to review my case. I’ve never promoted anything illegal. I’ve never targeted youth. I’ve worked tirelessly to be a responsible voice in the vaping and harm reduction space. But like many creators in this space, it seems I’ve been swept up in an overly aggressive moderation wave.

New Global Study Confirms It: Vaping Helps More Smokers Quit Than Any Other Method mipod.com/blogs/mipodblo…

COP11 is coming and the EU still has to finalise its path forward. Let’s compare Sweden and Spain’s fight against smoking. 🇪🇸 Spain: ❌ Ban on flavours in e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches ❌ High taxes on smoke-free alternatives ❌ Smoking rate stagnant at 25.8% (down 15% since 2012) 🇸🇪 Sweden: ✅ Embraced smoke-free alternatives ✅ Harm-based taxation ✅ Lowest EU smoking rate at 5.3% (down 54% since 2012)

Here is another video that @YouTube removed today for "medical misinformation". It's a video about a cancer study getting retracted. It's literally a scientifically based video using data from @NIH , but @YouTubeCreators feels this science is "misinformation" In this video i'm literally warning people about bad science that was retracted by the authors. How is that misinforming people? pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC98…

This comment from @dilanesper to @mattyglesias absolutely nails it. The tobacco wars never ended, the puritans just turned the guns in a different direction.

Arthur Laffer, the economist who gave his name to the economic theory of the "Laffer curve", holds up Australia's tobacco taxation as a "perfect example of the extreme version of the Laffer Curve". "It's not working at all." abc.net.au/news/2025-10-1…

New study added today thanks to @ArielleSelya and @jkelovuori. If anyone sees errors in my brief summaries, please let me know. But we just don't know, right? No long-term data, right? Not enough evidence, right? (Only >10,000 scientific studies; they've only been used for 18 years now...) Here are a few peer-reviewed academic (non-industry) scientific studies, many in very prestigious journals: 1) Cancer risk plummets when smokers switch to e-cigarettes Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) drops >10,000-fold. sciencedirect.com/science/articl… A more conservative estimate found lifetime cancer risk drops 99.5% (0.5% risk would be difficult to measure; difficult to distinguish from “background noise”) tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/27/1/10 Use of nicotine vapes significantly reduces exposure to a major pulmonary carcinogen, NNAL (results of 4-arm, parallel-group, randomized, controlled trial funded by US NIH and FDA) thelancet.com/journals/lanre… 2) Cardiovascular health improves when smokers switch to ecigs According to the American Heart Association, smokers who switch to nicotine vaping have a 7-fold lower risk of stroke; their heart health biomarkers are indistinguishable from never-smokers; and they have a 30%-40% lower risk of cardiovascular events than people who continue to smoke. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CI… ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.116… Systematic review and meta-analysis of 63 studies: “...short-to-medium-term transition from cigarettes to e-cigarettes may improve blood flow and blood pressure... There is lack of evidence supporting any association of e-cigarette use with cardiovascular diseases and cardiac dysfunction or remodelling." Exclusive vapers had no significant differences in heart rate (HR) or blood pressure (BP) compared with non-users, and lower HR and BP than smokers. heart.bmj.com/content/early/… They “experienced positive cardiovascular impact after both a 3- and 6-month period” including significant improvement in flow-mediated dilation, peak cutaneous vascular conductance responses to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside, and mean arterial pressure. These benefits were exactly the same for e-cigarettes and NRTs. bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11… “We did not find a significant difference in the cardiovascular risk of exclusive e-cigarette use compared with nonuse of cigarettes and e-cigarettes.” [i.e., nicotine vapers’ cardiovascular risk is indistinguishable from non-smokers and non-vapers.] Study funded by NIH & FDA. ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CI… Exclusive use of nicotine vapes (“e-cigarettes”) was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk of self-reported incidents of diagnosed cardiovascular disease over a 5-year period, whereas exclusive cigarette smoking is. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35907264; academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-ar… Smoking cessation showed positive cardiovascular impact within 3 days, and the effects did not differ between nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and nicotine replacement therapies (e.g., nicotine patch or nicotine gum). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35907264; and academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-ar… 1,179 heart attack patients followed for 41.7 months. 710 participants who smoked at baseline, but switched to e-cigarettes over the next year, had 57% lower odds of subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events compared to those who continued smoking (11.4% vs. 22.3%). sciencedirect.com/science/articl… Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and blood pressure control, improve, and significant weight gains associated with cold turkey smoking cessation do not occur. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27845734 Blood vessel health improves significantly jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.… nature.com/articles/s4156… sciencedirect.com/science/articl… sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 3) Lung health improves when smokers switch to e-cigarettes Lung cilia recover full function (these cilia remove solid particulates, bacteria and fungal spores from healthy lungs; cigarettes damage lung cilia function). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… Respiratory tract infections drop dramatically dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893… Longitudinal analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, an observational cohort study that surveyed 5,653 US adults ≥18 years, shows “Switching completely from past 30-day use of cigarettes to e-cigarettes had short-term beneficial associations with functionally important respiratory symptoms similar to quitting tobacco completely.” sciencedirect.com/science/articl… thelancet.com/journals/eclin… They have 20% less cough and 30% less phlegm than smokers who quit with nicotine patches or gum. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10… Data from 9,000 adults aged ≥ 16 years: “Exclusive e-cigarette use was not associated with higher odds of wheezing compared with never-use, and it was linked to substantially lower odds than exclusive cigarette smoking.” link.springer.com/article/10.118… Analysis of 19,000 people found 65% of smokers with asthma and 76% of smokers with COPD reported improvement in respiratory symptoms after switching to ecigs. mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/4… COPD smokers’ lung health and quality of life improve dramatically (participants followed for 5 years). “COPD exacerbations were reduced by approximately 50% in patients who stopped or considerably reduced their smoking consumption after switching to vaping.” ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… Asthmatic smokers experience “Significant improvement in asthma control and quality of life” pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31960343 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27011045 mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/5… discoverymedicine.com/Riccardo-Polos… mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1… What about never-smokers who vape nicotine? 'No detectable changes in lung health' of never-smokers who vaped nicotine for up to 4 years nature.com/articles/s4159… Studies that looked at both cardiovascular and lung health: 2022 review by University of Michigan researchers: When smokers switch, risk of acute cardiopulmonary events drops rapidly; long-term use leads to lung health benefits, especially among asthmatic and COPD smokers. No cancer risk found. mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1… E-cigarette users who never smoked, followed for 3.5 years: No significant health changes in blood pressure, heart rate, body weight, lung function, respiratory symptoms, exhaled breath nitric oxide or carbon monoxide; and “no pathological findings could be identified on high-resolution computed tomography of the lungs, and no respiratory symptoms were consistently reported in the e-cigarette user group.” nature.com/articles/s4159… E-cigarette users’ health biomarkers are indistinguishable from never-smokers. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are Harmful or Potentially Harmful Substances (HPHS) measured at high levels in smokers. “When compared with people who never smoked, E-cigarette smokers [sic] had similar blood concentrations of VOCs.” archpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

@phil_w888 @CRUKCymru @RhunapIorwerth Cancer risk from e-cigarettes > 50 000 (thousand) fold lower than smoking "57,000-fold" ecigarette-research.org/research/index…

If you are following the War on Vaping, a crucial battle just broke out in the prestigious pages of @NTR_Journal. It features the editor-in-chief vs. Bloomberg's top scientist - with a tag-in off the top rope by the intrepid @Clive_Bates. 1/🪡

Of all places to find a growing citizens’ rebellion against the nanny state, who’d guess it’s happening in woke Denver? Take note — if Denverites can claw back a little freedom from their elite, it can happen in your city too. #copolitics In this city of 70 breweries, 2,000 liquor establishments, some 300 cannabis dispensaries and now mushroom clinics, it was pure poetry when the city council and Mayor Mike Johnston passed a ban on adults buying flavored tobacco and nicotine products, you know, for the kids. A hint of cherry in your beer — sure. Peach-infused vodka — bring it on! Any bit of flavor in the product you’re using to help you quit smoking — a perversion that must be stamped out. I imagine the city council members who voted to disempower people from their own bodily autonomy also spout “my body, my choice.” The cognitive dissonance required for this type of selective maternalistic fascism is monumental. After all, those elite took away the personal decisions of 730,000 Denverites because, well, they know what’s right for others. What they don’t say aloud, but we hear perfectly, is, “your body, our choice.” And constituents are finding that offensive. Pushing back at the ballot Fortunately, some feisty business owners who didn’t appreciate potentially watching their shop be put out of business as pot shops spring up around them decided to do something. They delivered more than 17,000 signatures to repeal this bit of intolerance. And they’re starting to get some interesting allies. Referendum 310 on the Denver ballot this fall repeals the ban on new smoking cessation products like Zyn and old favorites like Swisher Sweets cigars, which back in my day had to be smoked by every grandfather under penalty of law. Kids today just can’t get enough of them (if not obvious, that’s sarcasm). Some progressives are understanding woke nannyism is driving people away from the Democratic Party. Progressive leader Deep Singh Badhesha announced on X, “After a fight, the Denver Democrats will officially take no position on the flavored tobacco ban. Let’s stop nanny state politics that alienate working class voters and protect much needed revenue. This kind of government overreach is exactly what turns voters off.” Democratic state Sen. Nick Hinrichsen piled on, “Democrats need to take a page out of the libertarian playbook. Adult choices that have no non-consenting third-party impact are never the government’s damn business. Ever.” Have progressives decided they no longer care about children, realizing pre-teens just look cool with lit cigarettes dandling from their little mouths? Or have they recognized many of their African-American constituents like menthols, which are now contraband? Or maybe they’ve noticed the large number of black and Hispanic voters who are growing tired of woke policies and voted for President Donald Trump. In any event, it’s refreshing to see progressives stand up for personal liberty — just like it’s disappointing when conservatives join the nanny left and “for the children” prohibit adults from buying Swisher Sweets cigars. Team nanny falling short Also encouraging is the pro-freedom team is outraising “team nanny” in campaign contributions. Tobacco and vape-shop owners losing their businesses to these bans are putting in the most money, followed by the companies that make the products. The committee fighting to keep the ban is “Yes for Denver Kids,” which as far as I can tell has no kids in it, only aspiring babysitters. They hide behind kids, but — like tobacco, booze, cannabis and mushrooms — it’s already illegal to sell nicotine products to kids. They say the reason to ban nicotine products to everyone at every age is sometimes these products have found their way into young people’s hands. Fortunately booze, tobacco, pot and mushrooms never find their respective ways into young people’s hands. We know that hasn’t happened because if it did city council would quickly ban those products too. They are that consistent and care that much about kids. Most of the money for team nanny comes from Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund (even though kids can’t buy tobacco), Kaiser Permanente and nanny ultra-funder Michael Bloomberg, who also outlawed large sodas when he was mayor of New York. So, just what is the difference between Michael Bloomberg and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? Both have strongly held and controversial beliefs on public health policy. But though RFK Jr. says you shouldn’t take Tylenol, he hasn’t banned it. Election night we’ll see if Colorado’s deepest-blue voters tell their elite they can make their own decisions.