Tobacco Product Use and Cessation Indicators Among Adults — United States, 2018

Smoking and SARS-CoV-2 Disease (COVID-19): Dangerous Liaisons or Confusing Relationships?

“…In a recent systematic review of 13 Chinese studies, smoking is vastly protective for hospitalized COVID-19 and similar findings have been now noted in the US [11]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [12] report an unusually low prevalence of current smoking among COVID-19 cases (1.3%) compared to the population smoking prevalence in the US (16.5%) [13]. A cross-sectional analysis of 4103 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients treated at academic hospitals in New York City demonstrated again a low smoking prevalence (5.2%) [14].…”

Nicotine in Senescence and Atherosclerosis

“…Younger nicotine users are more likely to vape than smoke. Only 7.8% of younger adults age 18-24 smoke, compared with about 16% of adults age 25-64 [12]. In terms of gender, 15.6% of smokers are men, compared with 12% of women [12].…”

“…Only 7.8% of younger adults age 18-24 smoke, compared with about 16% of adults age 25-64 [12]. In terms of gender, 15.6% of smokers are men, compared with 12% of women [12]. Smoking is now banned or isolated to a "smoking only" section in most public places, yet, remarkably, 41,000 deaths still occur in the USA from secondhand smoke [13].…”

Response to Mendelsohn, Borland and Hall's ‘Could vaping help lower smoking rates in Australia?’

“…invite comparison of smoking prevalence data from surveys which use different definitions of ‘smoking’. As at September 2019, the latest available data on smoking prevalence among four often compared anglophone nations show: Australia (2017–2018, ages 18+ years): 15.1% (includes cigarette and roll‐your‐own smokers plus all exclusive users of other combustible tobacco products such as cigars and pipe and waterpipe tobacco) ; USA (2018, ages 18+ years): 16.5% (like the Australian figure, includes all combustible tobacco product users) ; Canada (2017, ages 12+ years): 16.2% (cigarettes and roll‐your‐own tobacco only) ; UK (2018, ages 18+ years): 14.7% in the Annual Population Survey (the question in the survey cited by Mendelsohn et al . asks only about ‘cigarettes’ which is assumed but may not always be understood to include roll‐your‐own tobacco) . …”