Israeli study points to nicotine as a potential therapeutic for COVID-19

[Mike 03]

Jerusalem Post
DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
JUNE 7, 2020 12:15

"The risk of infection by COVID-19 appears to be reduced by half among current smokers," researchers have found.

Smoking may offer some protection against the coronavirus, an Israeli study has found. The results support recent similar findings by researchers in France, China and Italy, although a British study has found the opposite.

Noting that conflicting reports exist regarding the impact of smoking on the likelihood of contracting the coronavirus, the Israeli team led by Dr. Ariel Israel undertook a population-based study pulling in data from over 3 million adult members of the Clalit Health Service, Israel's largest healthcare provider.

Their results, presented in a non-peer reviewed paper published in medRxiv on Friday, found that "the risk of infection by COVID-19 appears to be reduced by half among current smokers." Of the more than 3 million adults included in the study, 114,545 had been tested for the virus, of which just 4% tested positive. The researchers matched those who tested positive to those testing negative at a ratio of 1:4, taking into account as closely as possible variables including age, sex, ethnicity. They found that among those who had tested positive, 9.8% were smokers against 19% of the overall population.

A previous smoking habit also appeared to confer some benefit, as 11.7% of those tested positive were former smokers against 13.9% in the general research population. Therefore, those who had previously smoked had a 19% lower risk of catching the virus, the results suggested.

Read more: https://m.jpost.com/health-science/more-studies-point-to-nicotine-as-a-potential-therapeutic-for-covid-19-630576/amp

[Laelth]

1. I suspected as much. n/t

-Laelth