So is it the nicotine? Or is it a specific type of airway damage which is the reason?
Smokers have some changes in the ACE2 receptors in the lungs. The coronavirus latches onto ACE2 receptors, and that particular structural damage makes it very hard for it to do that.
Smoking and COVID-19:
A nicotinic hypothesis for Covid-19 with preventive and therapeutic implications
jean-pierre CHANGEUX, Zahir Amoura, Felix Rey, Makoto Miyara.
https://www.qeios.com/read/FXGQSB
There is also some possibility that nicotine (as patches or gum) could be used in treatment/prevention. But obviously for those who are not already addicted, nicotine brings its own set of quite nasty side effects.
But it's interesting, nonetheless.
Smokers have some changes in the ACE2 receptors in the lungs. The coronavirus latches onto ACE2 receptors, and that particular structural damage makes it very hard for it to do that.
Smoking and COVID-19:
A nicotinic hypothesis for Covid-19 with preventive and therapeutic implications
jean-pierre CHANGEUX, Zahir Amoura, Felix Rey, Makoto Miyara.
https://www.qeios.com/read/FXGQSB
There is also some possibility that nicotine (as patches or gum) could be used in treatment/prevention. But obviously for those who are not already addicted, nicotine brings its own set of quite nasty side effects.
But it's interesting, nonetheless.