Little to no evidence that smoking protects against COVID-19; may increase risk of complications instead

FULL CLAIM: “smoking may protect against COVID-19 … Scientists believe nicotine might protect against coronavirus.”

Claims that smoking might protect against COVID-19 have been reported in several media outlets. Although many outlets, such as The Times and Franceinfo, urge caution towards such suggestions, still others have promoted smoking as a preventative measure against COVID-19. Such claims are currently going viral with more than 410,000 interactions on Facebook in April 2020.

Some of the evidence used to support this claim includes preprints—reports of studies that have not been peer-reviewed or formally published. These include a data analysis of five Chinese studies^[1], a study by Miyara et al. based in France^[2], a study in New York^[3], and a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)^[4]