ERS Vision – live panel discussion

Smoking and COVID-19 – what have we learned?

31 May, 2021 | Online

18:00–19:00 CEST

This event is the fourth in a series of live panel discussions available on the ERS Respiratory Channel. The event is completely free to access but registration is required.

Overview

Taking place on World No Tobacco Day (31 May), this live discussion will focus on current and emerging issues related to smoking and COVID-19.

A panel of experts will discuss key areas, including:

  • Evidence for increased susceptibility of smokers to COVID-19
  • COVID-19 and the interference of the tobacco industry
  • Smoking cessation – perspectives from low- and middle-income countries

Participants will have the opportunity to submit their questions to the panel after each presentation.

Chair

Jonathan Grigg - profile image
Jonathan Grigg
ERS Tobacco Control Committee Chair

Jonathan Grigg is Professor of Paediatric Respiratory and Environmental Medicine at Queen Mary University of London, and a Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician at the Royal London Hospital. His research includes effects of cigarette and e-cigarette emissions on bacterial / viral infection of airway cells. He is a member of the UK Department of Health’s Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution and Chair of the European Respiratory Society’s Tobacco Control Committee.


Linnea Hedman - profile image
Linnea Hedman
ERS Tobacco and Control Committee Member

Linnea Hedman is an associate professor of epidemiology and public health at Umea University, Sweden. She works as a researcher at the Obstructive Lung Disease in Northern Sweden studies and she has been a member of the ERS Tobacco control committee since 2018.


Speakers

Sukhwinder Sohal - profile image
Sukhwinder Sohal
Head of the Respiratory Translational Research Group and Senior Lecturer in Laboratory Medicine at the University of Tasmania

Dr Sohal is Head of the Respiratory Translational Research Group and Senior Lecturer in Laboratory Medicine at University of Tasmania, Launceston. He is Board Director for the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ). His research group investigates cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying chronic lung diseases such as COPD, lung cancer, asthma COPD overlap and ILDs for novel therapeutic targets. His lab is also home to investigations looking at effects of electronic smoking devices on lung health such as electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn devices.


Tom Hird - profile image
Tom Hird
Research Fellow with the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath

Dr Tom Hird a Research Fellow with the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, research partner in Stopping Tobacco Organisations and Products (STOP). Tom’s research focuses on understanding and addressing the commercial determinants of health and, through STOP, works to expose and counter tobacco industry interference in tobacco control policy.


Richard van Zyl-Smit - profile image
Richard van Zyl-Smit
Deputy Head of the Division of Pulmonology at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town

Professor Richard van Zyl-Smit is a consultant pulmonologist, and Deputy Head of the Division of Pulmonology at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town South Africa. He is Head of the Lung Clinical Research Unit at the University of Cape Town Lung Institute. He has participated in over a 100 clinical research trials over the past 14 years and has over 80 peer review publications across a range of topics from smoking cessation, TB and critical care, to asthma and COPD. He serves on the American Thoracic Society International Health committee, and is president elect of the South African Thoracic Society. He is the South African representative on the GOLD assembly, and a GINA global ambassador.