Carpe covid: using COVID-19 to communicate about harms of tobacco products

Many of us in the field of tobacco control have asked how the COVID-19 pandemic can be used as an opportunity to motivate people to quit using tobacco products. A paper by Grummon et al1 (this issue) is, to my knowledge, the first published attempt to empirically answer this question. Emerging research consistently demonstrates that smoking makes COVID-19 outcomes worse,2 although the relationship between smoking and COVID-19 infection is unclear. A recent study showed cross-sectional association between youth and young adult e-cigarette use and COVID-19.3 Thus, more research is needed on how to best inform tobacco users about the increased risk of COVID-19. Grummon et al1 answer this call by evaluating messages that inform smokers and e-cigarette users (vapers) how smoking or vaping may increase the severity of COVID-19.

Grummon et al1 (this issue) conducted two online experiments (one on smoking…

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