Reaching for that pack of smokes? You arenât the only one.
Tobacco sales in the U.S. have typically declined in recent decades. In 2020, they remained flat.Credit.Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Feb. 6, 2021
Lots of people seem to be smoking again or more during the pandemic, if anecdotal evidence and preliminary sales figures for tobacco products are any measure.
âGood quality surveys operate at a lag,â said Vaughan W. Rees, the director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at Harvard University, referring to reliable smoking studies from institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. âBut we are seeing interesting blips. The decline in tobacco sales has slowed in the past 10 months.â
Some blame the pandemic for the stress and boredom that have led them to buy more cigarettes.
Credit.Chloe Pang for The New York Times
Feb. 6, 2021
Maria Neuman blames Netflix. “Last night, I blistered through seven cigarettes because I was watching a movie,” said Ms. Neuman, 51, a freelance writer who lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. “It’s bad enough that I started smoking again during a pandemic. Now, I’m smoking inside.”
Milo Martin, a poet in Los Angeles, offered fewer excuses. “Being quarantined is a great opportunity to sit around and smoke,” Mr. Martin, 57, said. “It’s an existential exercise to tangibly see yourself breathing.”
As U.S. Vaccinations Ramp Up, Some Recipients Struggle to Secure a Second Dose
Last Updated
March 13, 2021, 10:17 a.m. ETMarch 13, 2021, 10:17 a.m. ET
The Supreme Court lifted some restrictions on religious services in California. China approved its second vaccine.
Here’s what you need to know:
Patients are observed for adverse reactions after receiving their first Covid-19 vaccine doses in downtown Seattle last month. Scheduling the next dose has not always been a streamlined process.Credit.Grant Hindsley/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
In some American states, people who have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine have been experiencing maddening difficulties as they try to schedule their second.