But then there’s this (and other similar findings):

https://www.qeios.com/read/article/541

It seems obvious that the combination of smoking-related pulmonary disease with COVID-19 is not going to be good. But the relationship of smoking itself to the virus may be more complex, and rather strange.

Of course, this is absolutely not a recommendation that anyone should take up smoking as a response to COVID! Merely an observation that a generalisation like “smokers are more at risk” may misrepresent a more complicated reality.