[conspire] A Man Drank 1 Bottle Rubbing Alcohol For COVID-19. This Is What Happened To His Brain

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Nick Moffitt (nick at zork.net):

> This is the first article that came up when I went searching, but I've
> heard radio stories about other shelters that gave out wine to
> alcohol-dependent residents:
> 
> https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/26/homeless-shelter-ottawa-gives-wine-to-alcoholics
> 
> The shelter in the story I remember hearing started doing it when they
> found their residents were drinking mouthwash and other dangerous
> things.  They did the harm reduction calculus and decided that a
> bottle of two-buck chuck per night was cheaper and less deleterious to
> the residents than anything they had been doing up to that point.
>
> "Cold Turkey" alcohol withdrawal has a death rate that makes heroin
> and crack look like small beer.

Yes, I actually wasn't aware of that fact until Deirdre (based in part
on her health-care acquaintances) informed me that it is so.

I figure we're probably all drowning in links that other people
recommended as worthwhile, but, if you have time, the Twitter story from
Deirdre's friend the ICU nurse really _is_ worthwhile:
https://twitter.com/CassieY4/status/1253759491885023232
There are multiple mobidly funny bits, but the crux of the story
concerns a homeless patient in her ward who she realised had been going
around tapping hand sanitiser dispensers and then drinking the mixture
because he was profoundly alcoholic.