Vaping, Covid and the Precautionary Principle

Opposition to vaping is driven by a complex web of factors. These include money, anti-nicotine morality and a justified distrust of anything related to tobacco companies. 

To get further into the web, it’s important to understand the precautionary principle.

What is the precautionary principle?

The precautionary principle applies across different fields of science. 

It informs policy when:

· a decision must be made

· harm could be created from that decision

· overwhelming evidence is not yet available.

When that overwhelming evidence is not available, decisions are made to avoid possible harm.

Problems with the precautionary principle occur when:

· only one half of the equation is considered – the potential harm from applying the precautionary principle, rather than the potential harm from NOT applying (or mis-applying) the precautionary principle

· the burden of ‘overwhelming’ evidence is set impossibly high.

As we will see below, the fallout of the precautionary principle can be seen in some of the biggest issues facing the world at the moment – with potentially disastrous results.

Covid, vaccines and the precautionary principle

The EU Covid vaccine debacle offers a brilliant insight into how the mis-application of the precautionary principle can lead to disastrous health outcomes. 

In Europe 30 people had blood clots after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab. 

That’s from a total of 5 million jabs given to EU citizens to form a vanishingly small percentage of 0.0006%. 

That’s no consolation for the people who had the blood clots. Unfortunately, though, blood clots occur naturally. About 1 in 1000 (0.1%) of people will experience a blood clot over the course of a year. In fact, the number of people who experienced blood clots after a vaccine is lower than would naturally be expected. 

Meanwhile, Covid has killed 2.72 million people in Europe. For every million people over 60 who get Covid, 20,000 will die. Indirect deaths are likely to be higher – both from damage to health (aka long Covid) and from people who can’t access medical care. 

Yet countries like Ireland suspended use of the vaccine just as a third wave of illness and death started to sweep the continent.

Europe is struggling with a massive anti-vaccination movement. In some European countries, more than half the population say they will refuse to have a jab.

In a region where there is so much fear of the one thing that can pull us all out of this mess, the suspension of the vaccine could be devastating to trust and confidence in that vaccine.

It also has potentially horrendous implications for trust in the vaccine in the rest of the world. 

So why were vaccines suspended?

Because of the precautionary principle, or at least an interpretation of it. 

In the words of Irish deputy chief medical officer Ronan Glynn:

“It has not been concluded that there is any link between the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca and these cases. However, acting on the precautionary principle… the Niac has recommended the temporary deferral of the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca vaccination programme in Ireland. ”