The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on infectious diseases and their associations with host factors and underlying conditions. New data on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus are entering the public domain at a rapid rate such that their distillation often lags behind. To minimise weak associations becoming perceived as established paradigms, it is imperative that methodologies and outputs from different studies are appropriately critiqued and compared. In this review, we examine recent data on a potential relationship between smoking and COVID-19. While the causal role of smoking has been firmly demonstrated in regard to lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such associations have the benefit of decades’ worth of multi-centre epidemiological and mechanistic data. From our analysis of the available studies to date, it appears that a relationship is emerging in regard to patients with a smoking history having a higher likelihood of developing more severe symptoms of COVID-19 disease than non-smokers. Data on whether COVID-19 has a greater incidence in smokers than non-smokers is thus far, contradictory and inconclusive. There is therefore a need for some caution to be exercised until further research has been conducted in a wider range of geographical settings with sufficient numbers of patients that have been carefully phenotyped in respect of smoking status and adequate statistical control for confounding factors.

持续的 COVID-19 大流行使人们关注传染病及其与宿主因素和潜在病症的关联。有关严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 病毒的新数据正以快速的速度进入公共领域，因此它们的提炼往往滞后。为了尽量减少弱关联被视为既定范式，必须对不同研究的方法和结果进行适当的批评和比较。在这篇综述中，我们研究了有关吸烟与 COVID-19 之间潜在关系的最新数据。虽然吸烟在肺癌和慢性阻塞性肺病方面的因果作用已得到明确证明，但这种关联得益于数十年的多中心流行病学和机制数据。从我们对迄今为止可用研究的分析来看，有吸烟史的患者比不吸烟者更有可能出现更严重的 COVID-19 疾病症状，这似乎正在形成一种关系。迄今为止，关于 COVID-19 在吸烟者中的发病率是否高于非吸烟者的数据是矛盾且不确定的。因此，需要谨慎行事，直到在更广泛的地理环境中对足够数量的患者进行了进一步研究，这些患者已在吸烟状况方面进行了仔细的表型分析，并对混杂因素进行了充分的统计控制。与非吸烟者相比，有吸烟史的患者更有可能出现更严重的 COVID-19 疾病症状，这似乎正在形成一种关系。迄今为止，关于 COVID-19 在吸烟者中的发病率是否高于非吸烟者的数据是矛盾且不确定的。因此，需要谨慎行事，直到在更广泛的地理环境中对足够数量的患者进行了进一步研究，这些患者已在吸烟状况方面进行了仔细的表型分析，并对混杂因素进行了充分的统计控制。与非吸烟者相比，有吸烟史的患者更有可能出现更严重的 COVID-19 疾病症状，这似乎正在形成一种关系。迄今为止，关于 COVID-19 在吸烟者中的发病率是否高于非吸烟者的数据是矛盾且不确定的。因此，需要谨慎行事，直到在更广泛的地理环境中对足够数量的患者进行了进一步研究，这些患者已在吸烟状况方面进行了仔细的表型分析，并对混杂因素进行了充分的统计控制。