By Abdellatif Sharaa

will not prevent you from contracting COVID-19. Despite fake claims and rumors claiming otherwise, be they from the southernmost tip of Latin America, or up north in Europe! Man seems to have known tobacco from early on in history, including some who gave it respect and sacredness. The indigenous people of the Americas used it for spiritual rituals and medicinal purposes. Yes, smoking tobacco among them reflected the causes of death due to smoking complications, or so it's being claimed.

Tobacco may have a magic component in it, because I noticed those who start smoking become smokers by the tenth stick. The answer when you warn them is always the same: "I am just puffing, that's all." They soon become full-fledged smokers - addicts.

Back to the statement - do you believe that such a claim is made by some of those known to be scientists, and even doctors!! Strange, is it not? I once attended a conference, during which the panel alluded to passive or secondhand smoking - how bad it is, as it has the same effects as regular smoking, such as causing cancer, heart attacks, heart disease, respiratory infections such as pneumonia and asthma, and diabetes.

"Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers. Secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic and about 70 can cause cancer," says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In short, smoking is never good, and all must understand this. We must realize that nicotine addiction is very difficult to get rid of. Passive smokers have a high risk of getting COVID-19 too.