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Doctors in the U.S. are reportedly eyeing vaping as a possible factor in the alarming amount of hospitalizations among young adults diagnosed with COVID-19.
According to the NY Post, medical experts began floating the vaping theory last week after the US Centers for Disease Control reported that up to 20% of people hospitalized with the virus were between ages 20 and 44.
Stanton Glantz, a professor and director of the Center for Tobacco Research Control & Education at University of California San Francisco, shared in a blog post, “When someone’s lungs are exposed to flu or other infections the adverse effects of smoking or vaping are much more serious than among people who do not smoke or vape,” he wrote.
Glantz told CNN, he believes that vaping can hinder the nasal cavity’s ability to ward off disease by damaging the microscopic hairs, or cilia, in the upper airway.
“Some of my [colleagues] have noted people under 30 ending up in hospitals and a couple were vapors,” Glantz said, noting a link has not yet been confirmed.
A study published in the Chinese Medical Journal in February found that smokers in China were 14 times more likely to develop severe cases of COVID-19 than those who did not smoke.
