Smokers 'four times less likely' to contract Covid-19, prompting nicotine patch trials on patients

Before anybody freaks out, this is in FRANCE, not the US.... Continue on...

SNIP
Frontline health workers and patients in France may be given nicotine patches after studies found that four times fewer smokers contracted Covid-19 than non-smokers.

The institute tested almost 700 teachers and pupils of a school in Crépy-en-Valois in one of the hardest-hit areas in France, as well as their families. The “highly accurate” tests found that only 7.2 per cent of smokers from among the adults tested were infected while four times as many non-smokers, some 28 per cent, were infected.

Clinical trials of nicotine patches on health workers and patients are awaiting the approval of the country’s health authorities.

Smoking causes 75,000 deaths in France and researchers were at pains to point out that nobody should take up the habit as a preventative measure.
ENDSNIP

https://www.yahoo.com/news/smokers-four-times-less-likely-151203823.html

I have no real dog in this fight, other than it's another reported way to beat this mother...

I guess we certainly can start tracking these numbers in the US, at the very least, in case France has lurched into something here..

My only real question is what could a nicotine patch do to somebody who doesn't smoke, other than possibly prevent COVID??

 

Ayuh,...... Nicotine is an addictive drug,.......

Almost glad I haven't quit smokin',....

 

Makes absolutely no sense, since the virus attacks the lungs??? Seems like it's a marketing ploy by the nicotine patch maker.

 

Nice trade off, lung cancer for corona.
Regardless, it does go against those with the respiratory problems here in the US who actually smoke.

 

If they don't give it a go, they cannot possibly know. Nicotine patches are odd to say the least, but if turns out to be a prophylactic measure that works, go with it.

 

Maybe it's not the nicotine at all.

So, maybe the tar and smoke by products left in the lungs makes the lungs unfriendly for the virus.

 

Specially since the opposite is true here.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/...-the-risk-of-a-severe-coronavirus-infection1/

 

France is dumb

 

Would like a follow up.

 

France is dumb.

There ya go.

 

Well, it seems to me that article says smoking makes those getting COVID experience much worse, not that smoking might prevent you from getting it in the first place, like France is claiming.

This article from March 17th would be too early to tell anyway.

I can certainly believe smokers would have a much harder time when they get it, but if we can track the confirmed cases by smokers/non smokers, at least we would have numbers to discuss or dismiss...

Until then....

 

When China was still in the news the reason presented as to why a much bigger slice of men died of corona in Wuhan than women was because about 2/3's of men smoke, but the women by and large don't.

 

It doesn’t just attack the lungs, it actually attacks the lining of the blood vessels according to recent study — meaning it is much more dangerous long term than we originally though. Since nicotine causes vessels to contract it actually kind of makes sense in some areas.

We won’t know the impact for years.

 

??

The nicotine patch maker didn't invent the numbers... Granted, this patch idea may be the wrong take away from the numbers, but it might not hurt to have a small clinical trial with volunteers, as long as the patch doesn't cause other severe issues...

OTOH, if the volunteers don't have it by now, they may be immune already and this might be locking the barn door after the horse escaped.

Who knows??.. Certainly doesn't sound any weirder than pushing Hydroxychloroquine with anecdotal evidence...

 

Until we’re willing to conduct actual trials by infecting smokers, we’ll just have to track the cases. Everyone is making all sorts of claims. I’ll, have to see the science before believing* anything.

 

We’re trying to get the facts when all the while we have listen to a president and his self appointed state TV network push unfounded dribble. Government by opinion.....sounds like a recipe for disaster and suffering for millions, both disease wise and economically. We even have a delusional senate head promoting state bankruptcies.

 

Maybe no one wants to get within 6 feet of smokers because they stink! That keeps them safe!

 

Sarcasm, but an interesting point nonetheless...

In that case, give everybody a garlic patch... probably fewer side effects...

 

Yes nicotine causes vasoconstriction - blood vessels to narrow - so it could potentially bring on minor heart attacks

I gather this is the search proposal

https://www.qeios.com/read/article/581

 

Since anosmia is a key feature of Covid I may give up bathing. That way those who do not avoid me I will avoid and stay safe

 

WOW!! I defy anybody to summarize that article in 2 paragraphs... THAT is a technical document...

Here's about the only full sentence I understood (and takeaway), about 30 paragraphs down

Yet under controlled settings, Nicotinic agents could provide an efficient treatment for an acute infection such as Covid-19.

Sounds like that's treating the infection, not trying to prevent it... But if it works for either case, it might be a net positive...

 

It could be that smokers tend not to breath in as deeply as non-smokers meaning the virus doesn't travel as far into the lungs for smokers? In another study they found that ex-smokers were more vulnerable to cvirus than current smokers.

Seems odd that they are going for nicotine patches though, however nicotine is quite a killer of bacteria. It would be ironic if a substance based on nicotine when applied to the inside of the lungs was found to kill the virus

 

No it has to do with ACE receptors within the lung -at least that is what they are postulating

Willl discuss it later

 

That was my first thought, I found it odd that researchers would immediately assume nicotine. Perhaps they considered both.

 

I remember the Vicks Vaporizer from the 1950's, which were common then:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?...F3FD11B35D&form=IQFRBA&first=1&cw=1117&ch=543

Maybe that could get a nicotine product designed for humidifier use inside the lungs.