Vaping Weakens Lungs, Immune System, Increases COVID-19 Risks

Vaping not only can weaken a person's lungs, but it can also lessen the immune system's ability to fight off infections, which is why it puts a person at high risk of getting COVID-19.

Aside from making a person a high risk, their lungs are compromised when a person has been vaping. This worsens the effect of COVID-19 on them and will likely put them at the Intensive Care Unit.

Experts have been sending out warnings since the COVID-19 pandemic started that the SARS-CoV-2 virus will most likely prey on smokers and vapers because their lungs are already scarred.

Not only that, when a person's lungs are already scarred because of smoking and vaping, but they are also likely to experience the worst symptoms of COVID-19.

Columbia University pediatric pulmonologist, Dr. Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, said in a report on The New York Times that she does not doubt that smoking and vaping can make COVID-19 in a person worse.

She added that smoking and vaping are bad for the lungs, and the COVID-19's predominant respiratory symptoms. That means that a combination of either smoking or vaping, and COVID will result in something terrible.

This claim was supported by a report on the University of California San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education that stated smokers, and vapers can reduce their risk of serious lung disease caused by COVID-19 by quitting.

Smoking and vaping also increase a person's exposure to the disease because these activities are rarely done on their own but most often with other people.

Thus, there is reduced social distancing, not wearing face mask because they smoke, and more contact of hands to mouth, nose, and eyes.

Another way that a smoker or a vaper can contribute to the widespread of COVID-19 is that when they may have the virus but do not show the symptoms, they are likely to spread the virus by coughing with fewer precautions.

An infographic posted on the Massachusetts General Hospital website stated how smoking and vaping could weaken the body's natural defenses against diseases.

Tobacco can increase the levels of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in the body. And, the SARS-CoV-2 attached to the cells in the lungs with the help of the ACE2.

Smoking and vaping also damage the cilia or those hairlike structures that line a person's lungs and help move the air throughout the lungs. Damaged cilia make it easier for the SARS-CoV-2 to enter the lungs and wreak havoc.

Smokers and vapers make it also harder for their bodies to fight viral infections because their acts can damage neutrophils and macrophages, certain types of white blood cells that help fight infections.

Besides that, tobacco flavorings such as menthol can also affect how well lung and airway cells can fight infections.

Thus, it is safer to quit smoking and vaping amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

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