As we reflect on COVID-19’s toll, the US must also act on the tobacco pandemic

John Maa and Jeff Wigand On February 22, 2021, the United States paused to honor the tragic milestone of 500,000 COVID-19 deaths, just one year and 16 days after the first fatality was recorded in California.  The peak of 5,427 new US deaths reported on Feb 12, 2021 exceeded the 4,414 Allied deaths at Normandy […]

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Tobacco Control and Human Rights Before, During, and After COVID-19

Neil Sircar and Stella Aguinaga Bialous The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant disruption and trauma, and with it a rise in threats to human rights. UN Secretary-General Guterres remarked on April 23rd, 2020 that the pandemic was “fast becoming a human rights crisis” as nations grapple with detecting, preventing, and responding to overlapping […]

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Smoking history is an important risk factor for severe COVID-19

  Giuseppe Gorini, Luke Clancy, Esteve Fernandez and Silvano Gallus Current evidence suggests that an association exists between smoking and COVID-19 severity, in line with recent research which has shown that smoking is associated with increased risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Moreover, a study based on 1099 COVID-19 patients showed that 31.7% of patients […]

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Smokeless tobacco use and the COVID-19 pandemic

  The use of tobacco products is of particular concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. Head and neck surgeons Dr Arjun Singh and Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi argue that smokeless tobacco use requires attention to help stop the spread of the disease. Since late 2019, the world has witnessed the spread of a pandemic affecting the respiratory […]

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COVID-19 and smoking: resources, research and news

  This page provides resources, research and news reports about COVID19 and smoking, vaping and other tobacco products for the information of health professionals, researchers and the general public. (Last updated 9 September 2020) Tobacco Control & BMJ publications COVID-19, smoking and inequalities: a study of 53 002 adults in the UK “…current smoking was independently […]

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Covid-19 and smoking: the elephant in the room?

Kathryn Barnsley, Sukhwinder Singh Sohal For more on COVID-19 and smoking, see the Tobacco Control resources page Click here The role of smoking in the contraction, transmission and mortality rate of Covid-19 should be given research attention, and countries should allocate resources to health stimulus packages, scientific research, and actions to further reduce smoking rates. […]

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Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: A Potential Conduit of COVID-19

Mohammad Ebrahimi Kalan, Ziyad Ben Taleb, Mehdi Fazlzadeh, Kenneth D Ward, Wasim Maziak On New Year’s Eve 2019, the outbreak of a novel infectious respiratory disease (known as Coronavirus disease 2019; COVID-19) was reported in several patients with a history of exposure to the Huanan seafood market, in multiple hospitals in the city of Wuhan, […]

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