#Smoking and #COVID19. "The % of current smokers among those ill/hospitalised/dead is SO much lower than the general population. There is no way this can be explained by bias, chance or/and underreporting", some say. "Nicotine must be protective". Let's examine this. A thread 1/ I'll use data from a huge study in the UK, where they compared the general population (17 million people) with people who died of/with #COVID19 (Pre-print here: shorturl.at/hqtH6). Data on #smoking are from GP files prior to disease, so very little missing (4%). 2/

#COVID19 is here. People we know will get seriously ill. Some won’t make it. Many will suffer financially, rights and luxuries we took for granted will be questioned. This is going to be an endurance race. Some thoughts on what you can do to deal with what's coming: 1/ Identify reliable sources of information & follow the experts’ advice. Experts in this context are scientists such as epidemiologists and infectious disease doctors and of course official sources: the World Health Organization, the government, the national public health bodies 2/