Fancy that.
A new study ('Association between smoking, e-cigarette use and severe Covid-19') published by Oxford University's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences has concluded that 'Current smoking was associated with a reduced risk of severe Covid-19 but the association with e-cigarette use was unclear’.
Researchers found that 'Compared with never smokers, people currently smoking were at lower risk of Covid-19 hospitalization'. Former smokers however were at 'higher risk of severe Covid-19'.
Remarkably the cohort comprised almost eight million people (7,869,534 to be exact) 'representative of the population of England with smoking status, demographic factors and diseases recorded by general practitioners in the medical records, which were linked to hospital and death data'.
It's very difficult to argue with a study of that size so I imagine most public health professionals will do what they always do when confronted with evidence that doesn't meet their preconceived bias – they will simply ignore it.
That certainly seems to be the fate of the many other studies into smoking and Covid that have reached similar conclusions.
One of the most credible was 'The association of smoking status with SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalisation and mortality from Covid-19: A living rapid evidence review', an ongoing study whose final version was published in August 2021 when it became clear that the results weren't going to change significantly.
According to researchers, 'Compared with never smokers, current smokers appear to be at reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and increased risk of greater in-hospital disease severity.'
I wrote about the living evidence review several times (see 'Review affirms that current smokers are at reduced risk of infection from Covid-19' and 'End of the road for living evidence review on smoking and Covid-19').
For the bigger picture however I recommend 'Smoking and Covid-19: a new evidence update' on Chris Snowdon's blog.
The results seem pretty clear and consistent to me but what do I know? I'm just a layman looking to be educated.
Unfortunately, when it comes to public health, propaganda frequently trumps the truth. On this occasion it's up to people like you and me to disseminate the facts to as many people as we can.