linkTwo meta-analyses have been published in the last week. Farsalinos et al. suggests that smokers are 78 per cent less likely to ‘have an adverse outcome’ from COVID-19. Gonzalez-Rubio et al. suggests that smokers are 82 per cent less likely to be hospitalised with COVID-19.
Two new studies came from Italy. Colombi et al. found that only 2.5% of COVID-19 patients were current smokers. However, the same table appears to show that 7.6% were smokers. The authors don't produce odds ratios or comment on the smoking findings.
The other Italian study (Gaibazzi et al.) is titled 'Smoking Prevalence is Low in Symptomatic Patients Admitted for COVID-19.' It finds that only 4.8% of COVID-19 patients were smokers, despite the national smoking rate being 24%.
A large study from the UK (Williamson et al.) found that only 6.9 per cent of the people who died from COVID-19 were smokers. This translates into a 20% reduction in risk, a 20% increase in risk or no significant effect at all, depending on how the figures are adjusted for other factors.
Finally, a study from New York published last month that I had previously missed found that only 5.1% of COVID-19 patients were smokers. The authors do not comment on this.
