[kaiabwpdjqn]

I noticed this smoker effect early on! Data from China was showing about 20% of the infected population was smokers, while smoking is closer to 60% in Chinese men (by cursory google search). The death rates were much higher for infected smokers, but they were curiously underrepresented.

This has a really interesting double effect if you think about it. In places with lots of smokers, fewer people will get the disease, but a larger proportion will die from it. Both of those effects will magnify the death rate.

Edit: assuming the protection is additive and not proportional to existing rates across ages

[DailyHN]

What about former smokers?

I imagine that, depending on the mechanism of action, and whether the "increased immunity" remains, there could something reproducible to reduce transmission.

[kaiabwpdjqn]

The data was small but seemed to be worse for former smokers. That’s hard to judge though, because former smokers are likely to have quit due to health problems. I haven’t seen any useful stats on infection rates but I think that’s an interesting idea.