Second-hand smoke surveillance and COVID-19: a missed opportunity

Introduction

SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) causes severe respiratory illness and multiorgan inflammatory disease.1 Smoking, cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension and chronic lung diseases are risk factors for COVID-19 severity.2–4 Second-hand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure is a known causal risk factor for CVD and chronic lung disease,5 and may also be a risk factor for COVID-19 severity, either through its role in these underlying conditions, or through its inflammatory effect on upregulation of ACE-2 receptors, mediating COVID-19 cell entry.4 However, a lack of SHS surveillance makes it difficult to quantify any potential relationship or to make evidence-informed recommendations about the effects of SHS exposure on COVID-19 incidence or severity. To learn more about whether SHS exposure was being assessed in COVID-19 studies, we contacted researchers who had published COVID-19-related work.

Methods

We contacted corresponding authors of peer-reviewed scientific articles published between February…

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