It turns out there may be a link between coronavirus deaths and smoking. This could explain a few puzzling things.
First, no children have died. Second, it disproportionately kills Chinese men rather than women. About 50% of Chinese men are regular smokers vs only about 2.5% of Chinese women. This also suggests that linear extrapolations from what's happening in China to how the virus would affect non-Chinese nations should be considered with a grain of salt. Chinese men consume a disproportionate amount of the world's cigarettes. In China, men who've gotten the disease are about 4 times as likely to die as a woman. The baseline risk would be about 1% fatality, but also keep in mind that people with compromised lung health are also more likely to pick up the infection in the first place.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-dangerous-smokers/Also:
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202002.0051/v1In current severe global emergency situation of 2019-nCov outbreak, it is imperative to identify vulnerable and susceptible groups for effective protection and care. Recently, studies found that 2019-nCov and SARS-nCov share the same receptor, ACE2. In this study, we analyzed four large-scale datasets of normal lung tissue to investigate the disparities related to race, age, gender and smoking status in ACE2 gene expression. No significant disparities in ACE2 gene expression were found between racial groups (Asian vs Caucasian), age groups (>60 vs <60) or gender groups (male vs female). However, we observed significantly higher ACE2 gene expression in smoker samples compared to non-smoker samples. This indicates the smokers may be more susceptible to 2019-nCov and thus smoking history should be considered in identifying susceptible population and standardizing treatment regimen.
Smoking causes significantly higher gene expression of a receptor that's targeted by coronaviruses, including the latest one and including SARS. So the question of "Why China?" for these types of viruses could be partly because these types of viruses target a receptor that you get more of if you're a heavy smoker. I'm willing to bet the few men in their 30s who have died of this also happened to be heavy smokers.
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Topic: Untamed Virus Containment Thread:COVID-19: Lurking Omni-Flu Edition (Read 423935 times)