Smoking is Associated with COVID-19 Progression: A Meta-Analysis

Past or current smokers with COVID-19 have double the risk for severe disease outcomes as people who’ve never smoked, according to a meta-analysis on the preprint server medRxiv. Researchers examined 12 studies that included 9000 COVID-19 patients. Roughly 18% of those with a history of smoking experienced disease progression, compared with 9% of never-smokers. The authors write: “Smoking history should be part of clinical management of COVID-19 patients and cessation should be added to the list of practices to blunt the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Smoking article on medRxiv (not peer-reviewed)