Category: Covid-19

Experts: Possible Post-Covid Boom for Vapor Market

Credit: Timothy S. Donahue
The marijuana market took a big hit last year after consumers of black market THC vaping products started to become ill, often with fatal consequences. As a result, companies have been on high alert, making safety a priority when crafting both nicotine and cannabis vape products, according to an article on Forbes.com.
With Covid-19 still a reality, experts are foreseeing a boom in the vaping market this summer. So, what else do they see in their crystal ball post COVID-19? Find out below. Among those weighing in are Tom Brooksher, CEO of Clear Cannabis Inc; Cortney Smith, CEO and founder of DaVinci; Dan Gardenswartz, chief financial officer of Spherex; and Elizabeth Hogan, vice president of brands at GCH Inc (parent company of Willie’s Remedy and Willie’s Reserve).
The Forbes article expresses that the following Q&A has been edited for conciseness and clarity.
Iris Dorbian: Why do you think the vape market will see a boom in the summer?
Tom Brooksher: Traditionally, summer is a strong season for cannabis sales as people purchase our products to enhance their vacations and time spent outdoors. As restrictions are lifted, we expect a pent-up demand for cannabis products that can be conveniently used in conjunction with outdoor activities. We also expect the phased reopening of tourism in key tourist/cannabis markets, such as Nevada, California, Colorado and Florida, to positively impact vape product sales.
Cortney Smith: Even as we enter an uncertain economy amid a recession, I still believe the vaporizer market has been growing steadily over the past few months and will continue to flourish. If anything, the pandemic has opened more people up to the possibilities of cannabis during a stressful time, and we’ve seen an uptick in new consumers
Elizabeth Hogan: We’re seeing people return to their favorites and stock up on proven winners—vape products included. With the fear of spreading germs, vapes sales will continue to grow as consumers move away from shared joints or bowls. Vapes are less harsh on your throat and lungs than smoking and take effect more immediately than edibles. This summer, it’s going to be a good idea to be prepared and bring your own. We’re sharing in spirit only these days.
Brooksher: We’ve done very well, all things considered. Our sales would have been even stronger in Colorado and Nevada had the pandemic not hit. In general, we’re seeing strong brands – high quality products with name recognition – holding their own or even growing during the pandemic, and weaker brands struggling or potentially failing.
Gardenswartz: We definitely felt some pressure during April and May. We also engaged in aggressive social media messaging to maintain communication with our consumers, as well as daily contact with our dispensary partners in all jurisdictions to mitigate any downward pressure. For vaping specifically, our customers reported a notable shift from typical joints to vape pens, which was largely driven by health and sanitary concerns. They are also cleaner and longer lasting. We don’t see this trend changing anytime soon.
Dorbian: How is your company positioning its vape line in response to the anticipated boom in the vape market?
Brooksher: Perception of value on the part of consumers is always important for cannabis brands and we don’t see that changing. That doesn’t mean cannabis consumers are focused on the cheapest product. They’re willing to pay for a quality product, but only if they perceive that it’s a good value – specifically that it’s safe, will provide a good experience, and matches their needs and preferences.
Smith: We recognize the need for personal vaporizers, especially in a time when cannabis consumers are shifting from a culture of sharing devices to more individual consumption. My team and I also continue to dream up new innovations, because I never want us to rest on our laurels. We’ve spent the past three years developing a new limited-edition iteration of the IQ2, that allows for cooler temperatures, and we’re finally launching it this summer. There’s no time like the present to be innovative and bring new solutions to the public.
Gardenswartz: During the lockdown, we worked aggressively to fine-tune quality control and production efficiency across the company, and those initiatives will benefit us not only this summer, but over the long-term. We view our products as “accessible luxury” – premium products priced at accessible levels. With Spherex, consumers can have the best of both world: the best products out there at very accessible prices.
Hogan: Willie’s Reserve vape line product offering has been expanding over the last year, adding CBD:THC ratio products, collaborations with musicians (Nathaniel Rateliff and Margo Price) and introducing 1-gram cartridges for consumers looking for more value. We have also seen a growing consumer demand for different forms of concentrate in vape cartridges. The combination of distillate and cannabis-derived terpenes is becoming very popular. In response, we launched our new line of live resin craft cartridges in Colorado. The live resin cartridges offer an even more flavorful draw than distillate.
Dorbian: What precautionary measures is your company enacting to ensure the safety of its vape lines?
Brooksher: We were fortunate in that our products were very safe to begin with. We’ve never used vitamin E acetate or any other toxic fillers, and we eliminated the use of MCT oil prior to it becoming an issue. In addition, we only use CCELL ceramic heating cartridges and hardware that are made with food and medical-grade material of the highest quality. As a result, we’ve had zero problems with product safety.
Smith: We’ve always built safety into the very DNA of our devices from the start. Beyond the specific safety measures we’ve taken to protect our employees and maintain best practices throughout the pandemic, we haven’t changed a thing about the device itself. DaVinci devices are created responsibly with clean hardware, with medical-grade components like a zirconia air path and feature an array of safety certifications such as Rohs, FCC and CE.
Gardenswartz: Fortunately, Spherex didn’t experience a notable negative impact from last year’s crisis. Spherex has and will continue to use only the best material, run through the cleanest process, put into the best hardware and packaging, resulting in clean, potent and superior end products. We plan to keep most, if not all, of the precautionary measures we enacted around COVID, even beyond the point that the virus is under control, which could be never.
Hogan: Transparency and cooperation in every direction are the two most important ingredients in safe cannabis. At Willie’s Reserve, we have alway been cognizant of how some negatively view the cannabis industry and our goal is to combat their doubt with clean products and safe procedures. Since this has always been a focus of ours, we have not had to change in wake of last summer’s illicit market issues. Our motive and the motive of some of these illicit market manufacturers are very different and our product quality is a testament to that.
June 16, 2020
UAE: 39% Lower Smoking; 83% Wear Mask During Covid-19

Credit: Calvic Lim
Thirty-nine percent of smokers cut down on smoking during the Covid-19 ‘StayHome’ period and 83 percent of the people put on face masks and gloves when going out, a poll has revealed.
The survey was carried out by the Health Promotion Department (HPD) at the Supreme Council for Family Affairs Sharjah, in cooperation with the University of Sharjah. It aimed at investigating the impact of lockdown on dietary behaviour, lifestyle and health practices.
Enhanced awareness
The findings reflected people’s enhanced awareness during the pandemic, thanks to the precautionary and preventive measures adopted by the UAE government. The preliminary results showed that 98 percent of those surveyed believed that home isolation was a good way to protect their families and stop the spread of infectious disease outbreaks.
The poll found that 79 percent of respondents were keen to sterilise the purchased food items and 84 percent of those who have children at home encouraged them to carry out physical activity.
Lifestyle, dietary changes
Among the 2,060 participants who were surveyed, 66.7 percent were obese or overweight, 56.6 percent engaged in physical activity before home isolation and out of them, 30 percent reduced their activity after the lockdown. The percentage of people sleeping over seven hours increased from 63 to 70 percent since the lockdown, the survey disclosed.
As far as eating habits were concerned, 29.4 percent reported weight increase while 32 percent of the people increased their food intake during the Covid-19 ‘StayHome’ period. Besides, 62 percent increased their citrus intake and 50.2 percent their water consumption. Around 38.4 per cent started taking herbal teas, and 94 percent contended that extra intake of vitamins and minerals could strengthen the body against Covid-19, the study revealed.
It also demonstrated that 67.2 percent felt more stressed during the home isolation amid the lockdown, 42 percent of the respondents felt more irritated and angry than before, even as the majority believed that after lockdown, their lifestyle will improve.
Supporting national efforts
Iman Rashid Saif, HPD Director, said: “This study aims primarily to support the national efforts to fight Covid-19 pandemic by gauging the community awareness and developing solutions and recommendations to enhance people’s health awareness and the behaviours they have to adopt during the crisis.”
“It also aims to investigate to what extent the people are committed to healthy lifestyle, such as physical activity and diet, so that further steps could be taken in the future to improve their quality of life.”
Dr. Hadia Radwan, assistant professor, University of Sharjah, College of Health Sciences, pointed out: “The comprehensiveness of the data collected, as well as the timing of the study, clearly reflect the lifestyle practices of people during the pandemic which will have key implications on the health of community members.”
She added that adjusting lifestyles and dietary habits would help boost immunity system to combat viruses. “The findings of this study will be compared with the global data of nutrition and health to be used as a base for indepth future studies,” she said.
June 14, 2020
Searches For Quitting Smoking Nearly Triple, Research Reveals

Credit: Mathilde LMD
The number of people quitting combustible cigarettes seems to be growing in the UK during the coronavirus lockdown, new research reveals.
The study by smoking cessation advocates Vape Club shows that the average annual Google searches increasing from 37,200 to 100,440 since restrictions began, according to a story in Talking Retail.
‘How to quit smoking’ is Googled an average of 37,200 times per year in the UK, but since 26 April the number of average monthly searches has pushed the yearly average to 100,440, an increase of 62,800.
The similar phrase ‘how to stop smoking’ has seen a comparably sharp increase of 40 percent in the past month in the UK. There are 31,200 searches on average per year, which has increased to an average of 43,680 with last month’s search figures.
In addition, searches for ‘NHS stop smoking service’ have increased by 120 percent in the same period.
Dan Marchant, director at Vape Club and member of the UK Vaping Industry Association, said: “The volume of people turning to Google searches for advice suggests that greater support and clearer information should be made available. I’d like to see stop smoking services reaching out to the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach in society, as there’s clearly a desire to quit with the right support. With vaping being the most effective form of smoking cessation, it’s important that it is presented as an effective quitting tool.”
June 5, 2020
Trump Cuts U.S. Ties With WHO, Cites ‘China’s Control’

President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. will be terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization. He said that the UN agency failed to adequately respond to the coronavirus because China has “total control” over the global organization.
He said Chinese officials “ignored” their reporting obligations to the WHO and pressured the WHO to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered, according to an AP story.
He noted that the U.S. contributes about $450 million to the world body while China provides about $40 million.
The U.S. is the largest source of financial support to the WHO and its exit is expected to significantly weaken the organization. Trump said the U.S. would be “redirecting” the money to “other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs,” without providing specifics.
May 29, 2020
Study: Length of Ring Finger a Factor in Lower Covid-19 Risk

Men with longer ring fingers face a lower risk of dying from Covid-19 and are more likely to suffer mild symptoms, researchers claim. Academics found coronavirus death rates in countries where men have shorter ring fingers were up to a third higher.
Ring finger length is determined by how much testosterone a foetus is exposed to when growing in the womb, the experts said. The more testosterone a male is exposed to in the womb, the longer their ring finger will be, it is believed, according to a story on The Daily Mail.com.
Testosterone is thought to be protective against severe Covid-19 by increasing the number of ACE-2 receptors in the body. Scientists believe the coronavirus, officially called SARS-CoV-2, enters the body and causes infection through these receptors.
But studies also suggest that high levels of ACE-2 receptors can protect against lung damage, which the coronavirus can cause. The new study, carried out by Swansea University, found men with low testosterone levels are twice as likely to die of Covid-19 than men with higher levels.
Mounting evidence has shown men are more likely to die from the coronavirus than women – but scientists have been unable to determine exactly why this is. In England and Wales, the Covid-19 death rate for men is 97.5 per 100,000 people compared to 46.5 for females, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Scientists believe men are less likely to wash their hands, may not seek medical help, and have more underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable. But testosterone could be one of the key reasons why so many men are dying from coronavirus, doctors believe.
Swansea University experts added to the theory that men who have low testosterone levels are at more at risk of Covid-19 than other men. They looked at data of 200,000 people in 41 countries where the researchers had already measured the finger lengths of volunteers.
Some researchers believe finger lengths reflect a foetus’s exposure to testosterone and other hormones that guide development in the womb. The index finger and the ring finger was measured to the closest millimetre. The first measurement is divided by the second measurement to get the 2D:4D ratio.
The smaller the digit ratio, the longer the ring finger is. The country with the smallest average male right hand digit ratio was Malaysia, with 0.976. The higher the digit ratio, the shorter the ring finger is. Bulgaria has the highest male right hand digit ratio, with 0.99.
Researchers found that in countries where the male digit ratio was smaller, including Malaysia, Russia and Mexico, the case fatality rate of Covid-19 was lower. And in countries where the male digit ratio was higher, including the UK, Bulgaria and Spain, the case fatality rate was higher.
May 28, 2020
South Africa Vape Group Decries Tobacco Link

The South African vaping industry is demanding to be allowed to sell its products online and for delivery during lockdown level3. They also want to be disassociated from the tobacco sector.
Vapour Products Association of South Africa (VPASA) chief executive Asanda Gcoyi told The Star that the narrative that vapour products, cigarettes and tobacco products were the same was problematic, according to a story posted on iol.co.za. “Vaping is not smoking, those are two different things. Both vaping and cigarettes contain nicotine, but nicotine is not what kills people in smoking, people die because of the tar,” she said.
Gcoyi added that categorising them together caused serious problems, because of the global agenda of harm reduction. “There are world associations that are pushing for tobacco harm reduction and South Africa is one of those countries, so it baffles us that we know what we know, yet we’re choosing to pretend that we don’t know the science and that vaping is less harmful,” she said.
The VPASA is calling for the government to allow vapour products to be purchased online and for delivery during lockdown level 3, according to the story.
The chief executive said the lockdown had been very bad for the vapour products industry, because the sector largely consisted of small businesses. She added that most of the business owners were former smokers who found a safe alternative and then opened shops.
“We’ve got about 5000 direct jobs that are at risk and we’ve about 400-500 small businesses across South Africa, and a lot are on the brink of bankruptcy because they can’t sell,” she said.
Gcoyi said the VPASA was worried that customers would go back to smoking. “My other concern is the illicit market. People are buying vape juice from shops we know nothing about, we hear it’s available at spaza shops, stories that people are mixing juices at home, which is extremely dangerous, because they are just mixing things and the environment is not right.”
Over the weekend, there were reports that Co-operative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma had tabled draft level 3 regulations that proposed lifting the ban on alcohol sales, but extending the prohibition of cigarette sales.
Gcoyi said this caused frustration to the association as the government had not responded to the association’s communication. “We just saw now that there is a possibility of us only coming back during level 1, which is completely unacceptable. We aren’t tobacco.” Gcoyi said the industry was worried that by level 1, there wouldn’t be any business left to reopen.
She added that the association understood that there were studies on the relationship between cigarette smoking and Covid-19, however according to her there was no data that linked the coronavirus with vaping.
May 27, 2020
Seigel: CDC Created Panic With Vapor Reports

Dr. Michael Siegel
Although it may have eclipsed our memories, COVID-19 is not the first disease outbreak that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has faced in the last three months.
It was as late as Feb. 25 — well after the first novel coronavirus case in the United States was reported — that CDC updated its numbers on what it called the EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping-associated lung illness) outbreak. On that day, while COVID-19 was silently spreading throughout the country, CDC announced that this “e-cigarette”-related disease had caused 2,807 hospitalizations and claimed 68 lives. Little did we know at the time that these two events were profoundly connected.
Throughout its investigation of the first outbreak, CDC created public hysteria over the dangers of electronic cigarettes by attributing the outbreak to all vaping products, whether they contained nicotine or THC and whether they were purchased at a highly regulated vape shop or from a drug dealer on the street. The very name that CDC attached to the outbreak directly implicated electronic cigarettes, which are nicotine-delivery devices that are effective in helping adult smokers to quit smoking.
Following CDC’s lead, state health departments spread the word that using an e-cigarette to quit smoking could be life-threatening — so much so that seven states issued emergency bans on the sale of most or all electronic cigarettes.
Regulate, keep e-cigs away from youth
What the CDC failed to tell the public until nearly the end of the outbreak, and what many state health departments have still not publicly revealed, is that the lung illness outbreak was not caused by electronic cigarettes at all. Instead, it was caused by THC-containing vaping cartridges that were laden with a viscous oil — vitamin E acetate oil — that had begun to be used as a thickening agent in many black market THC vaping products shortly before the outbreak started.
Experts in the cannabis industry had the cause of the outbreak pretty much figured out by Aug. 30 and had definitively figured out the cause by Sept. 11. David Downs — the California bureau chief of Leafly.com — was almost single-handedly responsible for getting wholesale THC vape cartridge manufacturers (both licit and illicit) to stop using vitamin E acetate oil as a thickening agent. This not only led to the “eradication” of EVALI, but it has proven that e-cigarettes were never involved since the outbreak has ended but e-cigarettes continue to be sold in high volume and without any changes in their ingredients or manufacturing process.
Nevertheless, as late as Dec. 11, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health was still warning the public that: “We don’t understand what is causing these illnesses. From a public health point of view, we cannot recommend that anybody use vaping or e-cigarette products at this time.”
Sales data reported by PiperJaffray for the four weeks that ended Oct. 20 (when the Massachusetts emergency ban was in effect for 25 of the 28 days) and the four previous weeks (mostly before the ban went into effect) revealed that there was a substantial shift from vaping to smoking in the state. Nationally, there was very little difference in the rate of decline in cigarette sales between these two time periods from 2018 to 2019. The rate of decline decelerated by just 0.3 percentage points (from -7.8% to -7.5%). However, in Massachusetts, the rate of decline decelerated by a massive 5.7 percentage points (from -9.8 percent to -4.1 percent). This suggests that that many ex-smokers in Massachusetts who were reliant on e-cigarettes to stay smoke-free returned to smoking.
National data reported by Bloomberg News revealed the same pattern: the rate of decline in cigarette consumption slowed significantly because of the e-cigarette scare.
And the nation’s largest cigarette manufacturer — Altria — acknowledged in its 2019 annual report that: “Growth of the e-vapor product category and other innovative tobacco products has further contributed to reductions in cigarette consumption levels and cigarette industry sales volume and has adversely affected the growth rates of other tobacco products. Continued growth in these categories could have a material adverse impact on the business, results of operations, cash flows or financial position of Altria and its tobacco subsidiaries.”
What does this have to do with COVID-19?
It means that due to the zeal of CDC and other health agencies to condemn electronic cigarettes, cigarette smoking in the United States got a significant boost just before one of the most devastating respiratory disease outbreaks in our nation’s history. And there is strong evidence that smoking makes COVID-19 significantly worse.
Thus, the e-cigarette scare significantly worsened the health consequences of COVID-19, potentially resulting in more deaths than would have occurred if the CDC and state health agencies had simply told us the truth.
Dr. Michael Siegel is a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, where he has conducted research on tobacco for 25 years. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
May 26, 2020
Covid-19 Vaccine Ready for Human Trials, Says BAT

Photo: Pete Linforth | PixaBay
British American Tobacco (BAT) said on Friday is ready to test its potential Covid-19 vaccine using proteins from tobacco leaves on humans, after it generated a positive immune response in pre-clinical trials, reports Reuters.
Once it gets approval from the U.S. Food and Drug administration (FDA) for the vaccine, the company plans to start testing on humans.
In April BAT announced it was developing a Covid-19 vaccine from tobacco leaves and could produce 1 million to 3 million doses per week if it got the support of government agencies and the right manufacturers.
Multiple companies from a variety of sectors have been racing to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, with some of the vaccines already in human trials. Experts have suggested that a Covid-19 vaccine could take 12-18 months to develop.
On Friday, BAT said it had submitted a pre-investigative new drug application to the FDA and that the agency had acknowledged the submission. BAT said it was also talking with other government agencies around the world about the vaccine.
The company said it has committed funds to conduct clinical trials, which it expects to start as early as late June. BAT has reportedly also invested in additional equipment to boost capacity.
May 15, 2020
U.S. Consumer Prices Continue Steep Declines

Credit: Joshua Rawson
For the second straight month, U.S. consumer prices declined in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday. Prices fell by 0.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, marking the largest drop since December 2008.
That’s an alarming drop, dragged down primarily by falling gasoline and energy prices. But excluding volatile food and energy, prices still fell by 0.4 percent. That’s the largest monthly decline in the so-called core consumer price index since the BLS began tracking the data in 1957, according to an article on msn.com.
Falling prices might sound like a good thing, but economists agree that deflation — the opposite of inflation — would be very bad news.
When prices fall because people aren’t buying things, manufacturers sometimes can’t charge enough to make the product they’re trying to sell. That means they’ll stop making those products and lay off workers. That can start a vicious circle in which demand continues to fall as more people lose their jobs.
Deflation isn’t here yet — prices have risen 0.3 percent over the past 12 months. But if stay-at-home orders continue to plunge the economy into a massive downturn, lower prices could exacerbate the damage.
Oil’s stunning decline
The collapse in gas prices was brought on by a demand crisis in the oil market, combined with an inopportune time for a major price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The oil market is struggling with waning demand as people cancel their travel plans, work from home or lose their jobs. Yet oil companies continued to produce, while limited storage capacity for oil barrels dragged the price for one oil futures contract into negative territory last month.
Americans felt the effect at the pump, as the BLS’s gasoline price index plummeted by 20.6 percent in April. The overall energy index fell 10.1 percent.
Clothes, cars and airfare prices fall, too
Even though tumbling energy prices made up the majority of falling prices in last month, it wasn’t the only area where prices dropped.
Prices for apparel, car insurance, airline fares and lodging away from home helped drag the overall index down as demand for these goods and services disappeared.
As most of America continues to be under some degree of lockdown restrictions, the amount of spending on vacations and many discretionary items has gone down. Economists worry this kind of spending might take time to recover as consumer remain cautious even after the restrictions lift.
Food and rent prices soar
Meanwhile, food prices climbed higher, with the food at home category recording its biggest increase since February 1974, rising 2.6%.
The price index for eggs climbed more than 16% — the biggest increase for any food item.
Rents and medical costs increased slightly as well.
Economists expected the coronavirus crisis to have a largely deflationary effect. The April data is proof of that. That’s bad news for policy makers at the Federal Reserve, who like to keep inflation at around 2% — widely accepted as the ideal balance for the US economy.
“Even as the economy reopens, core inflation is likely headed below 1% in the coming year in the face of high unemployment and low commodity prices,” said Sal Guatieri, Senior Economist at BMO.
The Fed has unleashed an enormous monetary policy stimulus package to stabilize markets and help the economy through this crisis.
Ordinarily, monetary action like that is expected to increase inflation. But Oxford Economics chief US economist Gregory Daco said that given the direction prices are going, “a surge in inflation is the least of our worries.”
May 13, 2020
Cannabis Offers Potential Resistance to Coronavirus

Credit: Christina Winter
An Alberta, Canada researcher says a new study shows that cannabis extracts are showing potential in making people more resistant to the novel coronavirus.
After sifting through 400 cannabis strains, researchers at the University of Lethbridge are concentrating on about a dozen that show promising results in ensuring less fertile ground for the potentially lethal virus to take root, said biological scientist Dr. Igor Kovalchuk, according to an article in the Calgary Herald.
“A number of them have reduced the number of these (virus) receptors by 73 per cent, the chance of it getting in is much lower,” said Kovalchuk. “If they can reduce the number of receptors, there’s much less chance of getting infected.”
Employing cannabis sativa strains over the past three months, the researcher said the effective balance between cannabis components THC and CBD — the latter more typically associated with medical use — is still unclear in blocking the novel coronavirus.
“It will take a long time to find what the active ingredient is — there may be many,” said Kovalchuk, whose Pathway RX is owned partly by Olds-based licensed cannabis producer Sundial Growers and partnered with Alberta cannabis researcher Swysh.
But it’s generally the anti-inflammatory properties of high-CBD content that have shown most promise, he added.
“We focus more on the higher CBD because people can take higher doses and not be impaired,” said Kovalchuk.
May 13, 2020