clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,819
Didn’t the French find that smokers were less likely to get Covid? I seem to remember
Well that's a bit like saying people who jump off buildings are less likely to be hit by a car.
Smoking is a uniquely deadly activity and highly additive because of the presence of nicotine.
It damages lungs and causes the sort of respiratory issues that mean you probably don't want to catch Covid.
However when isolated nicotine is "relatively" harmless compared to smoking.
Some research says it may help against Covid but the jury is out. I'm not a scientist and don't understand the theory, but I've read there is some commonality with the cell receptors Covid binds to and nicotine may help block infection.
However the scientists have made it clear that if that led to more people taking up smoking the result for public health would be "catastrophic”.