Key points from article :
Survey suggests UK smokers have quit or are thinking about it because of coronavirus.
A further 550,000 smokers have tried to quit, and 2.4 million have cut down.
That is, of those surveyed, 2% had quit, 8% were trying to quit and 36% had cut down.
"Smoking harms the immune system and our ability to fight off infections."
Some evidence suggests that smoking may increase transmission of the virus.
But other studies appear to show that nicotine may have some protective effects.
Number of COVID-19 patients who smoked was far fewer than in the general French population.
One theory is that nicotine may stop the virus from reaching cells in the body.
Patients will wear nicotine patches to test this hypothesis and see response to virus.
Survey conducted by YouGov and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
