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Editorial Volume 9 Issue 2
Tobacco smoking, impacting on the risk of COVID-19
Attapon Cheepsattayakorn,1,2 
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Ruangrong Cheepsattayakorn,3 Porntep Siriwanarangsun1
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1Faculty of Medicine, Western University, Thailand
210th Zonal Tuberculosis and Chest Disease Center, Thailand
3Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Correspondence: Attapon Cheepsattayakorn, 10th Zonal Tuberculosis and Chest Disease Center, 143 Sridornchai Road Changklan Muang Chian Ma 50100 Thailand, Tel 66 53 140767, 66 53 276364, Fax 66 53 140773, 66 53 273590
Received: July 30, 2022 | Published: August 25, 2022
Citation: Cheepsattayakorn A, Cheepsattayakorn R, Siriwanarangsun P. Tobacco smoking, impacting on the risk of COVID-19. J Hum Virol Retroviral. 2022;9(2):42. DOI: 10.15406/jhvrv.2022.09.00246
Editorial
A recent cross-sectional, observational study on COVID-19 and tobacco smoking among 1,688 crewmembers in France revealed that current tobacco smoking status cannot be efficient protection against COVID-19 infection and age more than 50 years was statistically associated with COVID-19 (odds ratio (OR) : 2.6 (1.17-6.9); p = 0.03), but current tobacco smoking status was associated with a lower risk of developing COVID-191 from nicotine’ s role2 that could trigger a run on nicotine products among the general public.3 Interestingly, a recent study on 1,649 confirmed COVID-19 infection in the United Kingdom demonstrated current tobacco smokers of 968 COVID-19-related hospitalization and 444 COVID-19-related deaths and indicated that current tobacco smokers had higher risks of hospitalization ( OR : 1.80, 95 % confidential interval (CI) : 1.26-2.29) and higher risks of mortality (tobacco smoking : 1-9/day : OR : 2.14, 95 % CI : 0.87-5.24; 10-19/day : OR : 5.91, 95 % CI : 3.66-9.54; > 20/day : OR : 6.11, 95 % CI : 3.59-10.42).4 By Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses, 281,105 White-British-study participants who genetically were predicted propensity to begin tobacco smoking was associated with higher risks of COVID-19 infection (OR: 1.45, 95 % CI: 1.10-1.91) and higher risks of hospitalization (OR: 1.60, 95 % CI: 1.13-2.27).4 Additionally, there was association between genetically predicted higher number of tobacco smoking (per day) and higher risks of all COVID-19 outcomes (COVID-19 infection OR : 2.51, 95 % CI : 1.20-5.24; COVID-19-related hospitalization OR : 5.08, 95 % CI : 2.04-12.66; and COVID-19-related death OR : 10.02, 95 % CI : 2.53-39.72).4
Conclusion
In conclusion, whereas, current tobacco-smoking status was associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 development, but this could be a paradoxical relation as efficient protection against COVID-19 infection. Other recent studies the contrast results. Thus, further urgent studies on the mechanisms of the lower susceptibility of tobacco smokers to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) are needed.
Acknowledgments
None.
Conflicts of interest
None.
References
- Paleiron N, Mayet A, Marbac V, et al. Impact of tobacco smoking on the risk of COVID-19: a large scale retrospective cohort study. Nicotine Tob Res. 202;23(8):1398–1404.
- Changeux JP, Amoura Z, Rey FA, et al. A nicotinic hypothesis for COVID-19 with preventive and therapeutic implications. C R Biol. 2020;343(1):33–39.
- van Westen-Lagerweij NA, Meijer E, Meeuwsen EG, et al. Are smokers protected against SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) ?: the origins of the myth. npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine. 2021;31:10.
- Clift AK, von Ende A, Tan PS, et al. Smoking and COVID-19 outcomes: an observational and Mendelian randomization study using the UK Biobank cohort. Thorax. 2022;77(1):65–73.
©2022 Cheepsattayakorn, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.