Vaping and Covid

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Anchor lead: Vaping leads to much worse disease when it comes to Covid-19, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Teenagers and young adults who vape are five to seven times more likely to become infected with Sars-CoV2 and develop Covid-19, a recent study found.  David Kass, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, isn’t surprised.

Kass: The more we’re learning about vaping the more we’re learning that its basically pro-inflammatory in that the lung is designed to breath air, ideally clean air. That’s it. It’s not designed to breath in smoke, cigarettes, pot, vapes with oils, and so if you’ve got a background where your lung tissue is already damaged whether you know it or not, then you get this, yes, that would make sense, and it is kind of the perfect storm. Why else should a 14 year old who catches this be at risk?    :30

Kass says education among those who vape is clearly needed to dispel two myths: that vaping is safe and that their age alone will protect them against severe Covid-19. He notes that in this study those who used both e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes were at the highest risk. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.