An Israeli study found that smoking can provide some protection against COVID-19. This result is similar to the recent results of researchers in France, China, and Italy, but a British study found the opposite.

Based on conflicting reports of the impact of smoking on the possibility of contracting the covid-19, the Israeli team led by Dr. Ariel Israel extracted data from more than 3 million adult members of Israel’s largest medical and health service center (Clalit) for research . The results of their study found that smokers seemed to have reduced their risk of COVID-19 by half.

Of the more than 3 million adults who participated in the study, 114,545 were tested for viruses, and only 4% were positive. The researchers paired a person with a positive test result with a person with a negative test result in a ratio of 1:4, taking into account as many variables as possible (such as age, gender, and race).

They found that among those who tested positive, smokers accounted for 9.8%, while the total population accounted for 19%.

Smoking seems to bring some benefits. 11.7% of people who test positive have a history of smoking, compared with 13.9% of the general study population. Therefore, the results of the study show that people with a history of smoking have a 19% lower risk of contracting the virus.

A recent study by Professor Chasier of the Pitie Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, France, also shows that the risk of infection among smokers has been reduced by about half. He said that of the 482 COVID-19 patients who visited the hospital between February 28 and April 9, only 4.4% of inpatients and 5.3% of outpatients smoked daily, compared with the general population. 25.4%.

The study also found that smokers were 80% less likely to experience severe symptoms, which led the researchers to suggest that nicotine in cigarettes binds to cell receptors to block virus invasion.

Similarly, University College London surveyed 28 papers and found that the number of smokers infected with coronavirus was "less than expected"; a Chinese study also found that of the 5,300 patients hospitalized with coronavirus, only 6.5% were smoking According to the British "Daily Mail" report, a study by the US Centers for Disease Control found that out of more than 7,000 people who tested positive, only 1.3% were smokers.

The researchers wrote in the paper: "Our results provide convincing evidence for the current connection between smoking and the individual's risk of contracting COVID-19."

Dr. Constantinos Fasalinos of the University of Western Attica, Greece, wrote in "Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine": "The potential benefits of nicotine... at least to a certain extent can explain the hospitalization of coronavirus The increase in smokers or the increase in undesirable consequences is because these patients inevitably suddenly stop nicotine intake during hospitalization."