Does coronavirus avoid smokers?

Can I get Covid-19 from cigarette smoke? Source: EPA/JAGADEESH NV

Get the SBS Audio app

Other ways to listen

While there is no cure for coronavirus to date, scientists have found that smokers do not get as seriously ill with COVID 19. The news delighted smokers around the world, but the scientific community is by no means suggesting smoking as a therapy nor as a shield of protection from the deadly pandemic. However, scientists seriously examine the administration of nicotine substitutes, for preventive or even therapeutic purposes against Covid 19.

In the midst of the deadly pandemic, analysis of evidence shows that smokers are not getting as seriously ill from Covid-19. A bad habit is now being studied scientifically to see if it works well against the deadly virus. The use of nicotine patches in patients is mainly considered to determine whether it can have protective properties against coronavirus.

Source: Supplied

A Greek researcher, Konstantinos Farsalinos, had previously published some of the impressive data as early as the end of March. Trying to determine how much more likely smokers are at risk from coronavirus, he looked at data from China and the United States. However, he soon found that the rates of smokers who were seriously ill and in need of treatment for coronavirus were very low, combined with the corresponding rates of smokers in the general society. Mr. Farsalinos has since studied more than 10 thousand cases and regardless of the geographical area, the data seem to converge. Smokers do not get sick so badly, from Covid-19, said Mr. Farsalinos in an interview with zougla.gr.

In America, in seven thousand patients with Covid-19, the percentage of smokers was 1.3%, while the percentage of smokers in the general population is 13%.

Now a team of eminent scientists in France, which confirms similar data in both France and the earlier Guan research in China, has undertaken to conduct research in the country's hospitals on the administration of nicotine substitutes, through patches. Both preventive for the medical staff and to the patients as cure.

Researcher Konstantinos Farsalinos, however, clarifies that no one should rush to start smoking in order to protect themselves from coronavirus. Smoking is harmful and deadly. Also, doctors cannot recommend that a patient should start smoking AS therapy. However, he stressed that the granting of nicotine substitutes should be started immediately, in patients and non-patients, in order to determine any pharmaceutical-protective effect of nicotine against the new coronavirus.