Note that I’m not saying the link was an affiliate link (I don’t know) and I’m certainly not suggesting that anyone here intentionally used one—often they get picked up and reused without the author even realizing it. I’m also not suggesting that they are always wrong: they have a place when disclosed—but they are becoming so common that readers and writers should be wary of them.
Though that’s about the common cold, not covid. She does mention covid in a comment:
For covid in particular the hypothesis was that it prevented transition between an annoying but harmless-to-most upper respiratory infection, to a very serious lower respiratory infection. I don’t know if that panned out for covid or if it transfers to other viruses, but it seems very plausible. “Nasal infection unaffected but progression to lungs inhibited” is an extremely specific prediction that should be fairly easy to measure but I couldn’t find anything on it in a few minutes on google scholar, which I find very disappointing.
What form of zinc are you suggesting people take?
On https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5DKqK3hEzzBoGF47C/consider-taking-zinc-every-time-you-travel Elizabeth mentions the brand she uses to prevent infections when traveling and explains some of her reasoning.
If you look at the ‘ETA’ paragraph at the end I would say she is effectively retracting that post.
Also, that Amazon link is long and confusing so readers won’t know if it may be an affiliate link. Better to use a bare version such as
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Extension-Enhanced-Lozenges-Count/dp/B01BKURF1A/
or even just
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BKURF1A/
Note that I’m not saying the link was an affiliate link (I don’t know) and I’m certainly not suggesting that anyone here intentionally used one—often they get picked up and reused without the author even realizing it. I’m also not suggesting that they are always wrong: they have a place when disclosed—but they are becoming so common that readers and writers should be wary of them.
Though that’s about the common cold, not covid. She does mention covid in a comment:
It’s thought that it applies to coronaviruses in general.