Snuffers have a whopping 68 percent higher risk of being infected by corona, a new study shows.

One of the big surprises with the coronavirus is that it is a lot like suggests that fewer smokers are hospitalized with Covid-19 than the proportion of smokers in the population would suggest. This finding is based on high on corona patients from China. Although – when smokers were first admitted they had worse prognoses than non-smokers.

Later studies have cast doubt on this. But it has never led researchers to wonder whether nicotine or other substances in cigarettes protect against the virus.

Thus, researchers from Norway, Sweden and Finland have joined forces and conducted a study on Nordic smoking and snuffers. The findings in the study do not indicate that nicotine protects against the Sars-Covid-19 virus.

The study, which is mentioned by Forskning.noshows that the risk of a smoker contracting covid-19 is slightly greater than in the control group who smoked or used snuff.

But those who sniff come off significantly worse: Those who sniff turn out to be 68 percent more likely to be infected by the virus than the control group.

Use of e-cigarettes and nicotine replacement made no difference.

Why snuffers come off so much worse is unclear. The researchers think it may be linked to social habits.

– We know that those who snuff drink more alcohol, says Galanti according to Forskning.no in an interview with Dagens Nyheter.

This may indicate that they are more social and go more to pubs and other places where they may be infected, she says.

The Directorate of Health’s tobacco statistics from 2021 show that around 15 percent of the Norwegian population say they use snuff, which corresponds to around 670,000 people. About four percent say they snuff occasionally.

There are large gender differences, among men at 21 percent and a daily snuff of 8 percent among women.