Francois Balloux, an infectious disease expert at University College London, says there is “bizarrely strong” evidence for the suggestion, made by artist David Hockney and others, that smoking could protect people against the coronavirus.
According to an article in The Daily Mail, data from multiple Chinese studies shows that Covid-19 hospital patients contained a smaller proportion of smokers than the general population (6.5 percent compared to 26.6 percent), suggesting they were less likely to end up in the hospital.
Another study, by America’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of more 7,000 people who tested positive for the coronavirus, found that just 1.3 percent of them were smokers—against the 14 percent of all Americans that the CDC says smoke.
Critics, however, attribute the counterintuitive findings to improper recording.
“It’s really difficult to assess how well smoking status has been recorded in an emerging epidemic and a lot of these people have been too sick to answer or may not have replied totally honestly,” said Jamie Brown, a tobacco and public health expert at University College London.
“We know, generally, smokers tend to come from lower income groups, which have poorer access to healthcare and may be more likely to die in the community.”
Both Public Health England and the CDC have urged people to stop smoking to protect their health.
“It is abundantly clear from the research into previous coronaviruses that smoking makes the impact of a coronavirus worse,” British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last month.
His chief medical adviser, Chris Whitty, added: “If you are going to give up smoking, this is a very good moment to do it.”