terry5
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A leading infectious disease expert at University College London, Professor Francois Balloux, said there is 'bizarrely strong' evidence it could be true.
And data from multiple Chinese studies shows that COVID-19 hospital patients contained a smaller proportion of smokers than the general population (6.5 per cent compared to 26.6 per cent), suggesting they were less likely to end up in hospital.
Another study, by America's Centers for Disease Control of over 7,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus, found that just 1.3 per cent of them were smokers - against the 14 per cent of all Americans that the CDC says smoke.
The study also found that the smokers stood no greater chance of ending up in hospital or an ICU.
The reasons for this are unclear.
Evidence coming out of scientific studies is conflicting and some say doctors are just too busy to be accurately noting down everyone's smoking habits.
Some researchers suggest smoking could reverse one of the ways in which COVID-19 damages the lungs while others argue the lung damage caused by smoke makes the organs more susceptible to failure.
Governments in both the UK and US urge people to stop smoking to protect themselves from the virus, but scientists admit there is no clear proof cigarettes can worsen the disease.
Around 1.1billion people around the world smoke cigarettes in spite of evidence they cause lung cancer, heart disease and numerous other life-threatening illnesses.
Whether they make people more likely to end up in hospital or die if they catch COVID-19, however, is unclear.
A study published earlier this month by scientists in New York and Athens claims the opposite.
It looked at 13 Chinese studies that had registered smoking as a precondition and found that the number of smokers across the whole sample of 5,300 patients was 6.5 per cent. An astonishingly small number in country where half of all men still smoke.
'This preliminary analysis does not support the argument that current smoking is a risk factor for hospitalization for COVID-19,' it reads.
'Instead, these consistent observations, which are further emphasized by the low prevalence of current smoking among COVID-19 patients in the US (1.3 per cent), raises the hypothesis that nicotine may have beneficial effects on COVID-19.'
+10
A group of studies from China found that the average proportion of coronavirus patients who were classed as smokers - from a total of almost 6,000 people - was just 6.5 per cent. For comparison, more than 26 per cent of the country's population as a whole are smokers
The paper has not been reviewed by other scientists and admits that it is based on limited data, but says that nicotine and the coronavirus both interact with the same receptors on cells inside the lungs.
It was done by Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos and Dr Anastasia Barbouni, from the University of West Attica in Athens, and Dr Raymond Niaura of New York University.
They suggest that while the virus causes lung damage by depleting the numbers of those receptors - known as ACE-2 receptors - smoking can increase the number of them, reversing the effect.
ACE-2 receptors, which are found on cells in the airways and lungs, have been said to work as the coronavirus's doorway into the body and to 'facilitate' infection.
Therefore having more of them would seem to be a bad thing, but scientists say they have a protective effect in the lungs and low levels are linked to worse damage from viral infection.
A 2008 study in mice found that getting rid of ACE-2 made the animals more likely to suffer severe breathing difficulties when infected with the SARS virus, which is almost identical to COVID-19. ACE-2's function in human lungs is poorly understood.
Dr Farsalinos's study was shared on Twitter by Professor Francois Balloux, director of the genetics institute at University College London.
Professor Balloux described the paper as 'puzzling' and added: 'Whilst the study design is far from perfect - and the authors are clear about its limitations - the evidence for a protective effect of smoking (or nicotine) against COVID-19 is bizarrely strong... actually far stronger than for any drug trialled at this stage...'
It is a claim that has been emerging around the world.
French scientist Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, who is leading a scientific council advising the country's government on COVID-19, said: 'We have something very special with tobacco.
'We have found that the vast majority of serious cases are not smokers, as if (…) tobacco protects against this virus, via nicotine,' French news site Sud Ouest reported.
The study by Dr Farsalinos adds by way of explanation: 'It has been observed that decreased ACE-2 availability contributes to lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome development.
And data from multiple Chinese studies shows that COVID-19 hospital patients contained a smaller proportion of smokers than the general population (6.5 per cent compared to 26.6 per cent), suggesting they were less likely to end up in hospital.
Another study, by America's Centers for Disease Control of over 7,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus, found that just 1.3 per cent of them were smokers - against the 14 per cent of all Americans that the CDC says smoke.
The study also found that the smokers stood no greater chance of ending up in hospital or an ICU.
The reasons for this are unclear.
Evidence coming out of scientific studies is conflicting and some say doctors are just too busy to be accurately noting down everyone's smoking habits.
Some researchers suggest smoking could reverse one of the ways in which COVID-19 damages the lungs while others argue the lung damage caused by smoke makes the organs more susceptible to failure.
Governments in both the UK and US urge people to stop smoking to protect themselves from the virus, but scientists admit there is no clear proof cigarettes can worsen the disease.
Around 1.1billion people around the world smoke cigarettes in spite of evidence they cause lung cancer, heart disease and numerous other life-threatening illnesses.
Whether they make people more likely to end up in hospital or die if they catch COVID-19, however, is unclear.
A study published earlier this month by scientists in New York and Athens claims the opposite.
It looked at 13 Chinese studies that had registered smoking as a precondition and found that the number of smokers across the whole sample of 5,300 patients was 6.5 per cent. An astonishingly small number in country where half of all men still smoke.
'This preliminary analysis does not support the argument that current smoking is a risk factor for hospitalization for COVID-19,' it reads.
'Instead, these consistent observations, which are further emphasized by the low prevalence of current smoking among COVID-19 patients in the US (1.3 per cent), raises the hypothesis that nicotine may have beneficial effects on COVID-19.'
+10
A group of studies from China found that the average proportion of coronavirus patients who were classed as smokers - from a total of almost 6,000 people - was just 6.5 per cent. For comparison, more than 26 per cent of the country's population as a whole are smokers
The paper has not been reviewed by other scientists and admits that it is based on limited data, but says that nicotine and the coronavirus both interact with the same receptors on cells inside the lungs.
It was done by Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos and Dr Anastasia Barbouni, from the University of West Attica in Athens, and Dr Raymond Niaura of New York University.
They suggest that while the virus causes lung damage by depleting the numbers of those receptors - known as ACE-2 receptors - smoking can increase the number of them, reversing the effect.
ACE-2 receptors, which are found on cells in the airways and lungs, have been said to work as the coronavirus's doorway into the body and to 'facilitate' infection.
Therefore having more of them would seem to be a bad thing, but scientists say they have a protective effect in the lungs and low levels are linked to worse damage from viral infection.
A 2008 study in mice found that getting rid of ACE-2 made the animals more likely to suffer severe breathing difficulties when infected with the SARS virus, which is almost identical to COVID-19. ACE-2's function in human lungs is poorly understood.
Dr Farsalinos's study was shared on Twitter by Professor Francois Balloux, director of the genetics institute at University College London.
Professor Balloux described the paper as 'puzzling' and added: 'Whilst the study design is far from perfect - and the authors are clear about its limitations - the evidence for a protective effect of smoking (or nicotine) against COVID-19 is bizarrely strong... actually far stronger than for any drug trialled at this stage...'
It is a claim that has been emerging around the world.
French scientist Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, who is leading a scientific council advising the country's government on COVID-19, said: 'We have something very special with tobacco.
'We have found that the vast majority of serious cases are not smokers, as if (…) tobacco protects against this virus, via nicotine,' French news site Sud Ouest reported.
The study by Dr Farsalinos adds by way of explanation: 'It has been observed that decreased ACE-2 availability contributes to lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome development.
