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.
Yes. Smokers do worse. That is a fact. This article is about a study of the effect of nicotine patches, which is way different than smoking/inhaling carcinogens.