There are a lot of people who don't seem to care about getting Covid-19. We're all seen them wandering around without face masks or standing really close to others. Even though we've all had many months to get used to the present situation, some people think they're immune to Covid-19 or maybe don't care about the consequences of getting it. If any of those people are smokers, they really need to think again as studies show smokers are more likely to end up in hospital when they get Covid-19.
Doubled
Smoking doubles your chance of experiencing a severe case of Covid-19 according to a new study. This is the first study that conclusively confirms that smoking puts you at a higher risk of contracting a severe disease. If you smoke, you're 14 per cent more likely to have the three main symptoms – persistent cough, shortness of breath and fever. Smokers are also 50 per cent more likely to develop all ten symptoms at once.
ZOE
The King's College London app ZOE was responsible for the data. The findings, published in the BMJ journal Thorax, contrast with previous studies that suggested smokers are less likely to catch coronavirus. The lead researcher and Senior Lecturer at King's College London Dr Mario Falchi said, "Some reports have suggested a protective effect of smoking on COVID-19 risk. However, studies in this area can easily be affected by biases in sampling, participation and response. Our results clearly show that smokers are at increased risk of suffering from a wider range of COVID-19 symptoms than non-smokers." The study involved 2.4 million users who downloaded the ZOE app between March 24th and April 23rd, 2020. Of that number, 220,135 were smokers. That's around 11 per cent.
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