Does nicotine help fight COVID-19? The science behind a novel hypothesis

Researchers in France have put forward a hypothesis that the presence of nicotine actually equips the body to fight COVID-19.

Smoking kills. So does COVID-19, and if a smoker contracts the disease, conventional wisdom should suggest that he or she faces a higher risk of severe illness or death. Now, researchers in France have turned that conventional wisdom on its head. They have put forward a hypothesis that the presence of nicotine actually equips the body to fight COVID-19. And they are conducting trials to test the hypothesis. “The researchers’ hypothesis is based on the combination of two different but complementary scientific approaches,” Institut Pasteur said in a statement. One of these two approaches is based on a statistical analysis of COVID-19 deaths in a French hospital, and the other on the biochemistry of the human body.