Tanya Lewis. Smoking or Vaping May Increase the Risk of a Severe Coronavirus Infection, Scientific American.
“Vapers’ risk of viral infections has not been studied much, although there are some epidemiological studies suggesting they are more likely to get respiratory infections, [professor of cell biology and physiology Robert] Tarran says. And animal studies provide some clues. Mice that were exposed to e-cigarette aerosol and then inoculated with Streptococcus pneumonia bacteria or influenza A were less likely to survive. And vaping may interfere with neutrophil function, some studies suggest. Scientists at Chapel Hill (Univ. of North Carolina) have shown that e-cigarette use suppresses the activity of immune- and inflammatory-response genes in nasal cells—more so even than smoking. And a preprint study found that the gene that encodes the receptor ACE2, which the novel coronavirus uses to infect cells, is more active in smokers than nonsmokers.”
For more details see: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/smoking-or-vaping-may-increase-the-risk-of-a-severe-coronavirus-infection1/
Stephen Hamann
