World Health Organization's (WHO) director of Health
Promotion Ruediger Krech has said that studies claiming that smoking
individuals are defenceless against to the novel coronavirus that causes the
COVID-19 lung disease have significant methodological weaknesses. In April,
French scientists published a controversial study suggesting smoking might
protect against catching the corona virus.
Krech told a virtual briefing on the occasion of the World
No Tobacco Day celebrated on Sunday that "We were very surprised to see
the uptake of highly reputed journals of these studies were not peer-reviewed
and actually showed huge methodological weaknesses. They have really made the
news around the globe, whereas about 20 other peer-reviewed studies and meta
analyses showed exactly the opposite."
WHO has been persistently warning that smokers are more
vulnerable and likely to develop severe forms of the illness including corona
virus.
