There was an article that promoted yet another “promising” study in the genre of “Unmask & Relax With this Amazing Product!” — another potential marketing to people who feel peer pressure to not mask but are sick of getting sick, or to try to get the masking unmasked. The article was suggesting yet another OTC product shoved up the nose maybe could protect, maybe possibly, perhaps it’s promising, based on one pilot study of humans and mice. The article starts out by mentioning other things like ivermectin that were once considered “promising” by some, and the pseudoscience rampant in the pandemic, but then they suggest that this time, it’s different! Except that none of these things they say put up your nose have compelling evidence for prophylaxis efficacy and not even necessarily safety. So maybe that’s not the best approach. In some cases they market things pointing to 15+ year old tiny studies that were really promising but have mysteriously never been replicated, or small studies conducted by the vendors of the products, or in this newest case, a brand new small study that’s super preliminary.
Ointments often contain petroleum jelly or similar stuff. Irritating or damaging one’s lungs with a problematic substance is not likely to be protective. If the product is not recommended for nasal insertion (and in some cases even if it is) it may be unsafe to do so. We all have to be cautious about promising ideas promoted in the press.
“Putting Vaseline in the nose could be life-threatening, as the oil can get into your lungs, and you can’t remove it.”
If you want to avoid covid, put on a mask, avoid unnecessary visits to crowded indoor locations, ask people to test before gathering, and use hepa air purifiers wherever possible.
The recent pop science article quoted a famous scientist who is not a medical doctor and probably not a trained public health communicator and was not giving clinical advice, it was just a quote in an article. And the article author decided to link to a public health organization that does NOT recommend including unproven products in the “layers of protection” actually. Doctors and scientists on social media or quoted in the news often seem to not realize if they get hyped about something as “promising” it’s telegraphed to the public and received and sometimes interpreted as clinical recommendation, even though it’s not.