When there's a respiratory illness making the rounds, you'd expect smokers to be most vulnerable, right?
Well... in the wonderful world of the Calvinballvirus, there's a rumor to the contrary out of France (by way of an English tabloid). Looks like smokers are substantially underrepresented among Pestilence patients, in more than one country.
It comes after world-famous artist David Hockney last week said he believes smoking could protect people against the deadly coronavirus.
Well, artist, sure. Definitely a reputable authority on such matters. But, then, if you do all your inhaling through a lighted cigarette, you'll be pretty well protected against respiratory pathogens....
In addition, the authors theorize nicotine could abate the immune system's overreaction to the virus, which leads to serious complications in some patients.
Ah. Now we're getting somewhere. Tobacco is reputed to help with some autoimmune conditions - when my late boss stopped smoking, his ulcerative colitis returned, until he went on chemo for lymphoma, which cleared the UC (but, alas, not the lymphoma) right up. Does it discourage cytokine storms? Is it the nicotine, the carbon monoxide, or something else?
Yet another confusing piece of (possibly incorrect) information.
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