The live event industry, among others, has been halted amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Researchers are looking at how the industry could resume to normal going forward and found a possible breakthrough. 

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump suggested that injecting poisons may kill viruses in a semi-safe way — a statement that initially stirred up controversy but may offer some truth. TicketNews has confirmed that researchers are investigating the effects of changes in water vapor respirators to low PH distilled water. While low PH water in excess can kill a person, the body can tolerate vapors with it well. Low PH water is also a disinfectant for the flu virus, and may be capable of battling COVID-19.

Additionally, the devastating mortality rate of the virus may negate the carcinogenic effects of smoke. According to a new study from France via MarketWatch, evidence shows that nicotine could prevent smokers from becoming infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), as nicotine potentially blocks the virus from attaching to the cells. In the study, doctors noticed that a low number of smokers were being treated for coronavirus, which is not statistically proportionate.

The researchers at Paris’ Pitie-Salpetriere hospital quizzed 480 patients with the virus and found that only 5% were smokers, which is lower than 35% of the average rate in France. 

While the authors of the study do not advocate smoking to prevent the virus, because of the well-known health issues surrounding nicotine usage, they plan to conduct further clinical trials regarding this new information, and whether or not there is any applicability to coronavirus mitigation strategies evolving across the globe. 

A request to continue the research is seeking approval. If allowed, the French researchers will ask healthcare workers to wear nicotine patches in an effort to track infection cases. This development backs the previous research done by the New England Journal of Medicine, which investigated the rate of infected smokers in China, where the virus originated. Roughly a quarter of the Chinese population smokes, though smokers only made up about 12 percent of every 1,000 COVID-19 cases in China.