[geofft]

I was about to post roughly this comment, but then I remembered reading https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine a while ago:

> many asso⁣ci⁣a⁣tions with harm are con⁣founded by past or present to⁣bacco use [...] but when pure nicotine is ex⁣am⁣ined [...] the harms ap⁣peared min⁣i⁣mal: like all stim⁣u⁣lants, nico⁣tine may raise blood pres⁣sure some⁣what, and is ad⁣dic⁣tive to some de⁣gree, but the risks do not ap⁣pear much more strik⁣ingly harm⁣ful than caffeine [...] There is lit⁣tle ev⁣i⁣dence from the NRT [nicotine replacement therapy] lit⁣er⁣a⁣ture that ‘never-smokers’ like my⁣self are all that likely to be⁣come highly ad⁣dicted

(To be clear, I understand why the medical community would be hesitant to endorse this without it rising to the level of a "cover-up," but it seems like it's not as bad an idea as it intuitively sounds. But it's also unclear if the stimulant levels mentioned in that article are anywhere close to the levels relevant for covid.)