I am running out of words to describe the blight on the world that social media has become. Instead of building connections it has created divisions. Instead of increasing intelligence, it has validated ignorance. It has cost relationships, and it has cost elections and it has cost lives. The stupid, in this case, literally burns.
A leading asthma patient group has issued a warning against an unproven coronavirus treatment circulating on social media that is leading some people to post videos of themselves breathing in hydrogen peroxide through a nebulizer. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America called the practice “concerning and dangerous” in a Tuesday blog post, emphasizing that it will neither treat nor prevent the virus and is harmful to the lungs. “DO NOT put hydrogen peroxide into your nebulizer and breathe it in. This is dangerous!” the foundation wrote. Coronavirus misinformation has proliferated on social media throughout the pandemic even as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have all taken steps to ban it.
Hydrogen peroxide is an antiseptic more commonly used to prevent infection from minor cuts, burns and scrapes. It is also used as a tooth whitener in some toothpastes, and as a common household cleaning agent. But it can be poisonous to humans if swallowed in strong enough concentrations. The AAFA advises against inhaling it in through a nebulizer, a relatively cheap medical machine which turns medications into breathable mist.
But those recommendations have not stopped some people from using hydrogen peroxide in a nebulizer and documenting the experience online. Melanie Carver, chief mission officer at AAFA, said the group has tracked related misinformation on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok posts that are reaching hundreds of thousands of views. A now-deactivated TikTok account titled “h202therapy” showed a video of a child on a nebulizer with a caption suggesting hydrogen peroxide was being used, Carver said.
I don’t know if these people think it is a joke, or if they really believe it, but they are inhaling the same hydrogen peroxide that used to make us cry when poured on a scraped knee. Into their lungs, their delicate, irreplaceable lungs because some assclown on TikTok, or Facebook, or whatever else their too smart for their own good phones can lead them to. Now besides being used for scrapes, peroxide is also a primary ingredient in bleach.
So in case anybody reads this from outside of this site, please do not attempt to bleach your lungs.
Do i have to explain why?
Effing-A I guess I do.
Ingestion
Ingestion of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide can cause:
- vomiting
- nausea
- irritation of your mouth, throat, and stomach
- gastric distension
- foaming at your mouth, from vomiting up oxygen bubbles that have formed in your stomach
- internal burns, although this is an uncommon symptom for this dilution
Ingestion of hydrogen peroxide at 10 to 20 percent strength can cause the same symptoms. Internal burns are more likely to occur at this strength.
Ingestion of solutions of more than 20 percent can cause the same symptoms, as well as rapid loss of consciousness and respiratory paralysis.
Repiratory paralysis is bad. It can be fatal, and believe me if you have to go to the hospital over what you saw on TikTok you do not want to have to explain that to the ER nurse. “I thought if it could burn the nasties off my knee it could do the same for my lungs,” is not how you want the Washington Post to have your nurse quote you if your idiocy gets you killed, or just humiliated.
Remember humans, peroxide is for hair, and external wounds, it is not for assaulting the not-optional oxygen transporters we call lungs.
We need those.
And nobody cares if your cilia are blonde.
-ROC
I am weak, dealing with a stretch of fatigue I have been unable to pinpoint. We continue to monitor for cancer recurrence. This is the only living my health allows me to earn and I appreciate you. My newsletter is unaffected. Sign up here to subscribe! It publishes every Wednesday and is full of original reporting, laughs, and fun!
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Love,
-ROC