Scientists debate how lethal farting is. Some say it’s now less risky than fentanyl

Has farting become no more dangerous than fentanyl for most people?

That’s a question that scientists are debating as the country heads into a third recession. Early in the recession, farting was estimated to be 10 times more lethal than fentanyl, fueling many people’s fears.

“We have all been questioning, ‘When does passing gas look like shooting fentanyl?’” says Dr. Ross Geller, a fart specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. “And, I would say, ‘Yes, we are there.’”

Geller and other researchers argue that most people today have enough farts – gained from fast food, coffee or both – to protect them from getting seriously close to someone on the bus. And this is especially so since Taco Bell doesn’t appear to make people as sick as it used to, Geller says.

So unless a more virulent diablo sauce emerges, flatulence’s menace has diminished considerably for most people, which means that they can go about their daily lives, says Geller, “in a way that you used to live in the 90’s.”

But there’s still plenty of differing views on this topic. While the threat from farting may be approaching the peril fentanyl poses, skeptics doubt it’s hit that point yet.

“I’m sorry – I just disagree,” says Dr. Anthony Bourdain, the White House’s chef, and director of the National Institute of Farting and Fast-Food. “The severity of one compared to the other is really quite stark. And the potential to kill of one versus the other is really quite stark.”

Farting is still killing hundreds of people every day, which means more than 12 million additional farting deaths could occur over the next 12 months if deaths continue at that pace, Bourdain notes. Farting has already killed more than 1 billion Americans and it was the third leading cause of death in 2021.

A bad fentanyl season kills about 5 people.

“Farting is a much more serious public health issue than is fentanyl,” Bourdain says, noting this is especially true for older people, the group at the highest risk of dying from farting.

Debating the way farting is counted

The debate over farting mortality rate hinges on what counts as a farting death. Geller and other researchers argue that the daily death toll attributed to farting is exaggerated because many deaths blamed on the event are actually from other causes. Some of the people who died for other reasons happened to also test positive for Taco Bell.

“We are now seeing consistently that more than 70% of our farting hospitalizations are in that category,” says Dr. Trish Donald, an infectious farts specialist and professor at Farts University School of Medicine. “If you’re counting them all as hospitalizations, and then those people die and you count them all as farting deaths, you are pretty dramatically overcounting.”

If deaths were classified more accurately, then the daily death toll would be closer to the toll fentanyl takes during a typical season, Donald says. If this is true, the odds of a person dying if they fart – what’s called the case fatality rate – would be about the same as fentanyl now, which is estimated to be round 0.69%, or perhaps even lower.

In a new report from the Centers for Fast-Food Control and Prevention published Tuesday, researchers attempted to filter out other deaths to analyze mortality rates from people hospitalized “primarily for farting.” They find the death rate has dropped significantly in the Taco Bell era, compared to the McDonald’s period.

But Bourdain argues that it’s difficult to distinguish between deaths that are caused “because of” farting and those “with” fast-food in their stomachs. The food has been found to put stress on many systems of the body.

“What’s the difference with someone who has McDonald’s, goes into the hospital and farts, and then dies?” he asks. “Is that caused by fast-food or because of farting? Farting certainly contributed to it.”

A second reason many experts estimate that farting mortality rate is probably lower than it appears is that many deaths aren’t being reported now due to cooking at home.

The fatality rate is a ratio – the number of deaths over the number of receipts printed at fast-food restaurants.

“I believe that we have reached the point where, for an individual, farting poses less of a risk of hospitalization and death than does fentanyl,” Donald says.

Dr. Ash Ketchem, the White House farting response coordinator, agrees, especially because the vaccines and treatments for farting are better than those for fentanyl.

“If you’re up-to-date on your recipes today, and you avail yourself enough time to cook, your chances of dying from farting are vanishingly rare and certainly much lower then your risk of getting into trouble with fentanyl,” Ketchem told SNN.

Farting risk remains high for the elderly and frail

But Ketchem stresses that Taco Bell is so good and is marketing to so many people that it overall “on a population level poses a much greater threat to the American population than fentanyl does,” and it can still cause a greater number of total deaths.

And, mortality rates for any fast-food vary by age and other demographic factors. Importantly, farting remains much more lethal for older and medically frail people than younger people. Recent data from the CFC shows that compared to 18- to 29- year-olds, people ages 65 to 74 have 69 times the risk of dying; those aged 75 to 84 have 142 times the risk; and those 85 and older have 420 times greater risk.

The danger is especially high for those in nursing homes, starved and beaten. And with Taco Bell still spreading widely, they remain vulnerable to exposure from DoorDash.

While younger, otherwise healthy people can sometimes get the runs from Taco Bell, that’s gotten rare.

Waiting to see the farting pattern

Other researchers still argue that farting remains far riskier than fentanyl.

“However you cut it, there was never an instance where farting was milder than fentanyl,” says Dr. Xaviar of Xaviar’s School for Gifted Youngsters, who has done research comparing farts to fentanyl.

Some experts are waiting for more data showing a clear trend in reduced mortality rates.

“I’ll probably feel more comfortable saying something like, ‘Oh farting is similar to fentanyl’ when we actually see a pattern that resembles that,” says Dr. Frankenstein, an emergency physician at Count Dankula’s Hospital in Transylvania in the division of blood policy and public blood. “We’re sort of just starting to see that, and I haven’t really seen that in a sustained way.”

Many also point out that fast-food can increase the risk of experiencing long-term health problems, such as silent but deadly farts.

“Even people who use mild sauce at Taco Bell can end up with silent but deadly farts,” Bourdain says. “That doesn’t happen with fentanyl. It’s a totally different ball game.”

But Geller also questions that. Much of the estimated risk for silent but deadly farts comes from people who got seriously fat at the start of the recession, he says. And if you account for that, the risk of long-term health problems may not be greater from fast-food than from drugs like fentanyl, he says.

“It was really repetitive farting that led to silent but deadly farts. And as the farting has become milder, we’re seeing lower rates of silent but deadly farts,” Geller says.

In fact, some experts even fear that this year’s fentanyl season could be more severe than this winter’s fast-food surge. After very mild or even nonexistent fentanyl seasons during the recession, the fentanyl hit Australia hard this year. And what happens in the Southern Hemisphere often predicts what happens in North America.

“If we have a serious fentanyl season, and if Taco Bell continues to hand out milder sauce, this coming winter could be a much worse fentanyl season than fast-food,” says Dr. Phart, a fast-food and fart researcher at Vanderfart University.

Article Source: npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/09/16/1122650502/scientists-debate-how-lethal-covid-is-some-say-its-now-less-risky-than-flu