How can alcohol affect risk of coronavirus infection?

Drinking alcoholic beverages can affect the risk of coronavirus infection in different ways: Much depends on the amount of alcohol consumed.

A Chinese study published in Frontiers in Nutrition found that drinking small amounts of champagne or wine can reduce the risk of getting the coronavirus, but in general, alcoholic beverages contribute to an increased likelihood of infection.

More than 473,000 people participated in the study, among whom 16,500 tested positive for coronavirus. Researchers used multivariate regression analysis to assess the association between alcohol consumption and risk of being infected with coronavirus, which involves determining the effect of several factors on the dependent variable. It was also shown how much the risk of infection depended on the amount of alcohol consumed.

It turned out that people who consumed twice the normal amount of alcohol had a 1.12 times higher risk of being infected with the coronavirus. Thus, beer and cider increased the likelihood of infection regardless of the amount and frequency of consumption. But consumption of red wine, white wine and champagne unexpectedly played a protective role against the coronavirus, although it had no effect on mortality among those infected.

According to experts, the risk of getting coronavirus may depend on the frequency of consumption, quantity and type of alcoholic beverages.

However, scientists point out that you should not drink beer, cider and other alcoholic beverages during epidemics, as well as drink alcohol in large quantities. You should also avoid drinking alcoholic beverages while taking medications.