Even More Deadly –
MARCH 22, 2020 – “When someone’s lungs are exposed to flu or other infections the adverse effects of smoking or vaping are much more serious than among people who do not smoke or vape,” Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Research Control & Education at University of California, San Francisco, wrote in a blog post updated Tuesday. “Vaping affects your lungs at every level. It affects the immune function in your nasal cavity by affecting cilia which push foreign things out … the ability of your upper airways to clear viruses is compromised,” Glantz said in a phone interview. People who smoke are generally at an increased risk of serious complications, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome, when they have a severe infection.
The odds of a Covid-19 case becoming more severe — and at the most extreme, leading to death — were 14 times higher among people who had a history of smoking compared to those who did not smoke, Glantz said, citing a study from China published in the peer-reviewed Chinese Medical Journal in February. The study also found those with a history of smoking had a 14% higher risk of developing pneumonia.
