[continued from previous message]

Hospitals in China, the US, Germany and France have had hundreds of thousands of coronavirus patients but admitted disproportionately small numbers of smokers.

According to the campaign group, Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, early data showed that in Germany six per cent to 21 per cent; and in France six per cent compared to 27 per cent.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US showed
that of around 7,000 COVID-19 patients, former smokers were more likely to be hospitalised or taken into intensive care than current smokers.

Just 22 of the hospital patients and five of those in intensive care admitted to being smokers, while 45 in hospital and 33 in ICU said they were former smokers.

Public Health England has not published any information about the people diagnosed or hospitalised with coronavirus in the UK.

Why then, scientists have asked, do smokers make up such a small proportion of patients when there are significantly more of them in the countries?

Experts have knocked this theory down and say reporting of who smokes and who doesn't has not been accurate enough.

UCL's Professor Brown told MailOnline: 'It's difficult to assess how well smoking status has been recorded in an emerging epidemic and a lot of these people have been too sick to answer or have not replied totally honestly.'

He added: 'We know generally smokers tend to come from lower income groups which have poorer access to healthcare... so may be more likely to die in the community.'

Professor Paul Hunter, a former NHS doctor and now medicine lecturer at the University of East Anglia, agreed that recording was likely to blame.

He told MailOnline: 'One interpretation is that smokers are less likely to end up in hospital.

'But actually it's more of an indication that when you've got doctors who are unbelievably busy they don't complete all of the questioning they would normally do.'

Professor Hunter added that the notion smoking could protect people from COVID-19 was 'rubbish', but admitted the ACE-2 receptor link deserved further study.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)