Pot, cigarette smoking, vaping is serious threat to coronavirus patients

<p>Experts are warning smokers of any kind --be it traditional or e-cigarettes, pot smoking or vaping --could be damaging to the respiratory system, which could worsen symptoms associated with COVID-19.</p><p>"All Americans need to avoid these substances at all time," Surgeon General Jerome Adams said during the daily coronavirus task force briefing.</p><p>Pulmonologists don’t yet know for sure if people with with preexisiting lung problems, such as asthma or chronic bronchitis, pose a greater risk to get the virus. But COVID-19 symptom, including shortness of breath and dry coughing, possible pneumonia are factors pushing experts to warn against any kind of smoking, from traditional cigarettes to e-cigarettes, from tobacco to marijuana.</p><p>Many health care professionals have been ringing the alarm.</p><p>The National Institute on Drug Abuse also stated that because it attacks the lungs, "COVID-19 could be an especially serious threat to those who smoke tobacco or marijuana, or who vape.”</p><p>Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Research Control & Education at University of California, San Francisco, wrote in a blog post that the odds of a Covid-19 case becoming more severe -- and at the most extreme, leading to death -- were 14 times higher among people who had a history of smoking compared to those who did not smoke. This was based on a study from China that also found those with a history of smoking had a 14% higher risk of developing pneumonia.</p><p>"When someone's lungs are exposed to flu or other infections the adverse effects of smoking or vaping are much more serious than among people who do not smoke or vape," wrote Glantz.</p>