Nicotine vs coronavirus: a study launched

Is nicotine effective in fighting COVID-19 coronavirus?

This is what some researchers are investigating based on statistical studies that smokers are, in fact, less likely to fall ill than others.

Curiosity and studies are said to be science

According to some studies, the statistics in various hospitals show that the proportion of smokers with coronavirus is very much lower in proportion to what it is in the population.

A Chinese study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (peer-reviewed journal) shows a proportion of smokers of 12.8% with coronavirus, while it is 28% in the Chinese population. Another statistic, published by the AP-HP (Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris) reports 8.5% of smokers among patients versus 25.4% of smokers in the population.

While most viral diseases affect smokers and non-smokers, whose complications are often to the disadvantage of smokers (source: JIM), the effect is reversed, with 4.4% of smokers among hospitalized patients with severe coronavirus.

Zahir Amoura, professor of internal medicine who conducted the study at the AP-HP, reformulated for RTL: "There are 80% fewer smokers in Covid patients than in the general population of the same sex and same age ".

However, some feedback, which have not been the subject of specific studies and are therefore to be taken with caution, would report sudden worsening of the condition of certain patients suddenly weaned from nicotine. Professor Jean-Pierre Changeux, neurobiologist specializing in nicotinic receptors, suggests that nicotine could prevent the virus from binding, thereby limiting its spread.

Professors Changeux and Amoura nevertheless remain very cautious: “Nicotine is addictive, and the mortality due to tobacco is much higher than that of COVID-19. The benefit / risk ratio is therefore to the disadvantage of cigarettes, but it deserves a study on nicotine”.

Under the aegis of the two scientists, trials will soon begin.

When they have received the green light from the authorities, nicotine patches will be administered to three different audiences and at different dosages: caregivers, preventive (to see if it protects them), hospitalized patients (in order to assess whether symptoms are decreasing) and patients in intensive care (to see a reduction of their inflammatory condition).

The studies conducted by Professor Amoura suggest that they have only been conducted on consumers of combustible tobacco. No mention is made of "vapers," and it is unknown whether they were considered to be smokers or non-smokers.

But this could well be a chance for the vape, if it turns out that nicotine is effective in combating the spread of the coronavirus. Alternative means of administration to the patch, it would perhaps allow certain patients to continue consuming nicotine in a less incentive way than the patch, because it would seem surprising that tobacco is, even if it is effective, authorized for treatment.

While waiting for the results of these studies and the way in which they will be used, it is better to observe all the possible and imaginable reservations. If, in fact, COVID-19 kills approximately 1 in 30 patients (to be specified once the epidemic is over), tobacco kills one in two smokers, and this number is amply demonstrated.