Fact Check: Did Studies Show That Marijuana Prevents COVID Transmission?

Some accounts pounced on the reporting to promote products containing CBD, the non-psychoactive cannabis compound featured in the research. “We’re celebrating that CBD is officially scientifically proven to prevent Covid and the vaccine isn’t,” one tweet marketing CBD oil falsely claimed. But that conclusion came along with some major caveats, which poured cold water on the claims that recreational marijuana use is now “scientifically proven” to be effective at preventing COVID infection. But it, too, does not go so far as to justify the claims that marijuana products can prevent COVID infection, nor that they are “more effective than vaccines.” A number scientific studies into the effects of CBD or compounds derived from cannabis on SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission have indeed shown promising results.