Value for the Pipe

An interesting finding by clinicians in France has been in the news a bit.  It is a report that shows a correlation (not necessarily causation) between smoking tobacco and a LOWER risk of having a severe Covid-19 reaction.  A synopsis is shown here:

Article Synopsis from "The Guardian"

The basic finding is that the number of patients hospitalized with severe Covid-19 effects who are smokers is much smaller than would be anticipated from the population at large.  In their findings, ~25% of the French population are currently smokers, yet the percentage of smokers who are the population of hospitalized for Covid-19 is only around ~5%.

Not to make light of a fairly shocking finding.... it does put my own prior indulgence in pipes and pipe tobaccos in a bit of a different light.  It does make the idea of indulging in this beloved hobby almost prophylactic.  I am not doing anything *yet*.  But, it is something I am thinking about, of course.