Do smokers develop more severe COVID-19 disease?

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There is conflicting data: A Chinese study in Seventy-eight patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia identified smoking as a risk factor for progression of pneumonia. A study published by Lipi et al in the European Journal of internal medicine did not find an association between active smoking and disease progression: The authors of a study published in the Lancet respiratory medicine

speculated that the  sex predisposition might be associated with the much higher smoking rate in men than in women in China . Of note, one study (DOI:10.1101/2020.02.05.20020107)  found that although ACE2 expression was not significantly different between Asian and white people, men and women, or subgroups aged older and younger than 60 years, it was significantly higher in current smokers of Asian ethnicity than Asian non-smokers; This would suggest that especially asian smokers are at increased risk. 

In contrast there is no study that shows that smoking in beneficial in COVID-19 infection. So stop smoking