Impact of the UK lockdown on people at risk of COPD

From the beginning, public health advice issued by the UK National Health Service (NHS) encouraged smokers to quit. This advice was based on studies that showed a five time greater risk infection of the respiratory tract by the influenza virus in smokers, and that bacterial infection/pneumonia is twice as likely in those who smoke [1, 2]. Early data during the pandemic was inconclusive as to whether tobacco smoking or nicotine conferred increased susceptibility to COVID-19 infection or not, but infected smokers had poorer clinical outcomes [3]. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: Dr. Donaldson reports grants from Astra-Zeneca, personal fees from Astra-Zeneca, personal fees from American Thoracic Society, personal fees from FWO, Flanders, personal fees from Novartis, outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: Dr. Ritchie has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Calverley reports grants and personal fees from GlaxoSmithKline, personal fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Phillips Respironics, Novartis, Recipharm and Zambon and personal fees and other from Boehringer Ingelheim outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: Dr. reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, personal fees from Boehringer-Ingelheim, grants from Boehringer-Ingelheim, personal fees from Chiesi, personal fees from GSK, personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from TEVA, outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: Malin Fageras Conflict of interest: Dr. de la Hoz reports other from Boehringer Ingelheim International, outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: Enrica Bucchioni Conflict of interest: Dr. Compton reports other from I am an employee of GSK, other from I hold shares in GSK, outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: Karen Mezzi a Novartis Pharma AG employee Conflict of interest: Dr. Wedzicha reports grants from GSK, other from Novartis, other from Boehringer Ingelheim, other from Astra Zeneca, other from Chiesi outside the submitted work.