I thought that initial reports said that smokers did very badly once they were sick enough to require hospitalization. Maybe its true. If it is, it would be interesting if you could trade prophylaxis (low probability of getting sick) for a more severe case if you did get sick.
Maybe patches and/or vaping would provide the prophylaxis in a way that was less deleterious to your lungs and other organs than regular ciggies.
Maybe that’s why the homeless aren’t dropping like flies....
Well isn’t that some crazy stuff.
Push for patches
“ COVID 19 is understood to bind to ACE 2 receptors. It appears to have a disruptive effect on the homeostasis of the Renin Angiotensin System (1). Nicotine is an ACE-agonist. It has been shown to be protective in acute inflammatory reactions in ARDS probably by decreasing inflammatory cytokine production by macrophages and other mononuclear cells (2).
In this new disease smokers seem to have particularly poor outcomes (3). We postulate that at least in chronic smokers, the disruption of the normal Renin Angiotensin System is exacerbated by nicotine withdrawal leading to exacerbation of acute lung injury. We suggest that the simple use of Nicotine patches should be urgently considered and discussed.”
https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m406/rr-25
I remember my dad saying how back when he was a kid the term “sucking on a fag” meant smoking a cigarette. Times have changed a bit.
During the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 smoking tobacco was considered and advertised as a preventative measure against the flu.
Smoking linked to severe infection
Mounting evidence suggests that, compared with nonsmokers, people who smoke cigarettes face a higher risk of developing severe complications and dying from COVID-19 infections.
For instance, a study of more than 1,000 patients in China, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that smokers with COVID-19 were more likely to require intensive medical interventions than those who didn’t smoke. In the study, 12.3% of current smokers were admitted to an ICU, were placed on a ventilator or died, as compared with only 4.7% of nonsmokers.
https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-covid-19-risk-and-smoking.html
Uh no.
fags is an old irish term for cigarettes
Oh, I was thinking flamethrowers and....
Never mind.
Well, I’ve already stocked up on Ivermectin. Now I guess I got to get me a bunch of cans of Skoal.
I’m going back to cigars tomorrow
In my scientific analysis, it is not nicotine that keeps smokers from getting Covid-19, but that no one wants to get near those stinky, hacking smokers anyway, so ‘Social Distancing’ is automatic and extended.
Not odd for a person who quits smoking to have a period of increased colds and other maladies.
