Health Farm

-- Coronavirus capitalises on the scarred lungs of smokers and vapers

Researchers are beginning to understand why smoking and vaping seem to enhance the virus’s ability to spread from person to person, infiltrate the lungs, and spark some of Covid-19’s worst symptoms.

While smoking can more than double a person’s risk of severe Covid-19 symptoms, a team of researchers recently reported that young adults who vape are five times more likely to be infected with coronavirus.

More than five million middle and high school students recently reported using vapes.

The contents of cigarettes and vapes range enormously, but many experts are more concerned about additives, such as heavy metals and vitamin E acetate, which bathe the lung in toxins and ultrafine particles that can poison or damage.

Research shows that the virus may have an easier time breaking into the bodies of smokers and vapers. The habit appears to alter the surfaces of certain cells, prompting them to coat themselves with more of a molecule called ACE-2 — the protein the coronavirus uses to break into its targets.

That process, combined with the idiosyncrasies of vaping, may help explain why vapers are more likely to contract coronavirus.

People who vape often do it socially, sharing spaces and equipment. And vaping, like smoking, involves a lot of hand-to-mouth movement, providing germs an easy path into the airway.

And if you’re smoking or vaping, you’re not wearing a mask.