Vaping Increases Risk of COVID Infection in Teens, Young Adults: Study

Teens and young adults who use e-cigarettes are five to seven times more likely than their non-vaping peers to become infected with COVID-19, a new study suggests.

“We were surprised,” lead author Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher of Stanford University told NBC News. “We expected to maybe see some relationship…but certainly not at the odds, ratios and the significance that we’re seeing it here.”

The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, analyzed surveys of more than 4,300 participants ages 13 to 24 nationwide. Young people who had ever used e-cigarettes were five times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 compared with their peers who never vaped. Those who had used both e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes in the past month were 6.8 times as likely to be diagnosed with the virus.

“Teens and young adults need to know that if you use e-cigarettes, you are likely at immediate risk of COVID-19 because you are damaging your lungs,” Halpern-Felsher said in a Stanford news release.