People who smoke or have COPD may be at increased risk for severe complications and death from COVID-19.br Patients with COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are nearly twice as likely to experience severe illness.br Researchers found that critically ill COVID-19 patients with COPD had a 63 risk of severe disease.br According to UPI, those same critically ill patients also had 60 risk of death.br Critically ill patients without COPD had a 33.4t risk of severe disease and 55 risk of death.br Current smokers were 1.45 times more likely to have severe complications compared to former and non-smokers.