Press Coverage: Eagle News International

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Reporter: You’re watching the Eagle News International coverage on the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic, North America edition. I’m Anna Qui, coming to you from Las Vegas. We now know COVID-19 attacks the lungs, but what does that mean for those who smoke? And is there something for people who smoke that they can do to lower their risk? Joining Eagle News this evening is Jaina Pallasigui, manager from Orange County’s 1-866-NEW-LUNG. Thank you for joining us, Jaina.

Jaina: Thank you so much Anna, thank you for having me.

R: So now is the time for people who smoke to quit. That’s the motive, right? What research has there been between COVID and smoking?

J: Sure, so as we know, and you mentioned earlier, COVID-19 is a virus that attacks the lungs and causes respiratory disease. So there’s been a lot of research on people and patients that have contracted COVID-19 and whether or not they have smoked. There’s been recent publications in the Chinese Medical Journal from February of this year that found patients in China who smoked and contracted COVID-19 actually had 14 times more likely of a probability to receive or get severe symptoms of COVID-19, including death, as opposed to people who do not smoke. And there’s other research studies, including the one that has the largest sample of COVID patients; they actually sampled 1099 patients who had COVID-19 and they found that people who smoke or vape are 2.4 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU and have severe symptoms where they need mechanical ventilation than people who do not smoke or vape. As we know, the pandemic is still going on, research is still going on, so we’re learning more and more about how smoking affects COVID-19 or how smoking can affect those who do not have COVID-19 yet.

R: You answered my question. I was going to ask about those who vape if they are also at the same risk. You did mention that and that’s pretty significant - [2.4 times are more likely to be ventilated]. Aside from the obvious, what should people who smoke do during this pandemic?

J: Right, so as we know, the pandemic has really forced people into different routines, different lifestyles, and because of this huge change, it causes a lot of stress. It might cause people to feel bored or even cause people to have anxiety, a lot of which are triggers people to smoke or even relapse. So we find ourselves in a really unique situation where not only are people already smoking, but now people are triggered more to smoke. So there’s nothing more like this current pandemic to really urge us to quit smoking. And I just want to say first of all, we’re not here to force anyone to quit. I’m not the smoking police. I won’t lose sleep if people don’t quit, but if anyone made a resolution to quit smoking in January or has ever thought about quitting, and in actuality, out of all people who smoke, there’s 70% of those people who smoke want to quit. A lot of people want to quit, they just don’t know how to. So for the people who have that desire, especially with this current pandemic going on, we want to make our lungs stronger or we want to be our healthiest in order to combat this virus. Now is the time to really make that commitment and really set a quit date for quitting. So that’s for people who have thought about quitting before should do now.

R: That’s very true and you mentioned earlier that people especially with the stay at home mandates everywhere that have to stay home. They are going through a lot more stress and they’re kind of in a 20-20. They smoke to relieve stress, but at the same time it’s bad for them. Tell me what’s one of the first steps, an important step, for smokers to do if they’re trying to quit.

J; That’s a great question. So beside making a commitment to want to quit smoking, what they really need to do is find their reason for quitting because a lot of people know we shouldn’t smoke, yet a lot of people continue to do so. However, if there’s a reason that really motivates someone to quit that is stronger than maybe that immediate gratification they receive from smoking, that’s going to really help them through the quitting process. For example, I actually helped one of my friends quit recently, and the reason why she wanted to quit was because she wanted to be a good role model for her daughter. She’s been smoking since she was 15 years old, and she kind of switched to vapes, but still she didn’t like how she had to hide all the time from her family. So her strongest reason to quit was so that she could be around her daughter when she gets older and be there physically when her daughter eventually marries the love of her life. So that very first step besides making a commitment is finding your reasons, why you personally want to quit is really important in this process.

R: Then also from reading, how important is it to also pick a date to start the way to quit smoking? Is that true that it is also important, not only to find reason and to also set a date?

J: You know Anna, I’m so glad you asked that question because today is Monday. And Monday is actually one of the best days to quit smoking. It’s actually the day that people most google search for “how to quit smoking.” So even though you might want to pick like a significant day, like a birthday or anniversary to help you remember, it's important more so just to write down that date and really make that commitment in writing to let yourself know and to remind yourself that you’re going to quit.  Because a lot of people have it in the back of their minds like “I’ll quit later. I can quit whenever I want” and because they never write it down, it never comes to fruition. That’s why it’s so so so important that you write it down and we put it somewhere that date, where we can see every day. Maybe on the refrigerator, in our car, maybe as a screensaver in our phone so that we are remembering why it is we want to quit and the date that we quit.

R: That’s a really good idea, I guess with anything, if we’re trying to reach a goal, writing it down, putting it visually, where we can always see it, will help. With the 1-866 program, are you doing any kind of outreach to people or are you just waiting for people to call?

J: Right so that’s a good question. 1-866-NEW-LUNG is Orange County’s free quit smoking service. We provide free quit smoking services to youth and adults and these services are in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Farsi. And the reason why it’s in those languages, is because those are the populations specifically in Orange County that have the highest smoking prevalence.  We want to make sure we have the language capabilities that can assist the people who smoke the most. We have different outreaching strategies. We have social media. We have a website, but most particularly we have a telephone campaign. So maybe some people want to quit smoking, but don’t know how or don’t know if there are other resources available. We actually are able to do telephone counseling so people can quit from the comfort of their own home. And what’s awesome about our program too is it is absolutely free, no insurance, nothing necessary and we mail the nicotine patches directly to their residence so there won’t be any contact with us. We’ll just be there on the phone and once they have completed the services, they’ll receive the nicotine patches. So our outreaching has mostly been in media and emails and mostly word of mouth in order for people to know that our services are available.

R: That’s really great! As far as resources, you mentioned you actually are mailing out free nicotine patches because that’s one of the hurdles, I think, one of the challenges, for those who want to quit is that they can’t afford to buy the nicotine patches. Are you seeing them through providing that?  Through the whole process or how does that work?

J: Right, so since our funding is very limited and we provide services to over 3000 people every year in Orange County, the most we’re able to provide is a 2 week supply of nicotine patches, which is about $54. So yes they are very expensive and we give them Nicoderm CQ brand. But what people don’t realize is once they quit smoking, they’re saving all that money from not smoking and they can use that for their nicotine patches. So we kind of give them a jump start with the free supply, and once they continue to quit, they can use that saved money in order to supplement the nicotine patches that they might need more.

R: Do you have something to show them? Like mathematical…?

J: We do! We have a rewards page in our curriculum that calculates how much someone spends every year, after 10 years, after 20 years. And you’ll be surprised, Anna. It is thousands and thousands of dollars. You could buy houses with this amount of money and people never sit down to actually calculate how much they spend on cigarettes. Especially in California where it’s taxed so much, New York has such high taxes for cigarettes… Hawaii. It’s so expensive to smoke nowadays.

R: Well hopefully that amount alone will encourage somebody, right, motivate somebody to quit smoking. You mentioned that 1-866-NEW-LUNG is specific to your region. Is there a national hotline that people can access? Since we are now being watched by other people.

J: Well in our county, like I mentioned, for California, there’s 1-800-NO-BUTTS, and that’s California’s smokers’ helpline, but nationally, there’s smokefree.gov. They have a lot of different resources on their website to help people stop smoking.

R: Awesome thank you for sharing that. Is there anything else about your program that you would like to share with us?

J: Sure! So since we’re here on Eagle News, we want to provide a promotion for anyone, even if you’re not in Orange County to receive some kind of free help material to quit smoking. So if you go to our website, 1866newlung.com, and you contact us, just give them the code. The code is EAGLENEWS and if you send us that code and contact us on our website, we will send you a free ebook on how to quit smoking or how to quit vaping.

R: great! Thank you for sharing that Jaina. Thank you so much. You’ve shared so much helpful information. Hopefully those who are watching, even if you don’t smoke yourself, share it with someone you know that can benefit from this. Thank you again, Jaina!

J: Thank you, Anna.