New Resources on COVID-19 and Smoking

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are well. NAQC staff has been hearing from many of you about the impact of COVID-19 on your work and families. One of the ways we are responding is to temporarily decrease our general communications (such as the monthly newsletter, Connections) in lieu of single topic communications. We hope these communications continue to meet your need for up-to-date information while allowing you to select the topics of most interest to you. We continue to offer technical assistance for all of you and are available to respond to any questions or information needs you may have. Please feel free to reach out to me, other staff, or our general mailbox naqc@naquitline.org.

Over the past few weeks, information has rapidly become available regarding a possible link between COVID-19 and smoking, and we wanted to make you aware of some recent published literature that considers the potential risk to smokers.

Smoking or Vaping May Increase the Risk of Severe Coronavirus Infection – Scientific American

COVID-19: Potential Implication for Individuals with Substance Use Disorders – National Institute on Drug Abuse

We also want to thank states and CDC for the excellent resources they are providing. CDC continually updates its resources (including case counts) and offers subscription to a daily email update on COVID-19:https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html (to subscribe to the daily email update, scroll to the bottom of this webpage).

Our very best wishes to all of you.

Linda Bailey, JD, MHS
President and CEO
North American Quitline Consortium