Smokers quit during pandemic

Covid brings new quitting high - 27th July 2020

Smokers have been quitting in huge numbers since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The UK has seen in excess of a million people kick the habit according to the charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash). Separately, a University College London (UCL) study has found that more people quit smoking in the year to June 2020 than in any year in the life of the survey, which began over a decade ago.

Between April and June, a sample of 10,000 people were asked about their smoking habits and 7.6% of smokers taking part in the survey had quit. Of this figure, almost a third higher than the yearly average, just under half reported that the pandemic had played a role in their decision. Reasons stated included health concerns, access to tobacco while isolating and no longer smoking socially.

Such health concerns concur with data from more than 2.4 million UK participants analysed by the Covid Symptom Tracker app, which found that smokers testing positive for Covid-19 were more than twice as likely to be hospitalised as non-smokers who also tested positive. Of similar concern, data from the US revealed that smokers hospitalised who had a positive Covid-19 test were 1.8 times more likely to die than non-smokers.

Meanwhile, studies claiming that smoking may have a protective effect against coronavirus, by nicotine perhaps blocking the same receptors used by the virus to enter cells, have been dismissed as anecdotal by experts. They caution that the health harm from smoking, as opposed to absorbing in nicotine through a patch or gum, far outweighs any potential gain.

Public Health England’s advice states: “There is strong evidence that smoking tobacco is generally associated with an increased risk of developing respiratory viral infections. Smoking causes damage to the lungs and airways and harms the immune system, reducing your ability to fight infection. Smoking also involves repetitive hand-to-face movements, which increase the risk of viruses entering the body.”