English probably isn't your first language, but "buried" and "hidden" have different connotations. When I said it was buried, it means all the subsequent studies. This is what the article was about. I remember early during the pandemic articles talking about how smoking appeared have a protective effect, and then it was no longer talked about. I thought maybe it was disproven but it doesn't seem to be the case, it was just buried.
Compared with never-smokers, current smokers had higher risks of hospitalisation (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.26 to 2.29) and mortality (smoking 1–9/day: OR 2.14, 95% CI 0.87 to 5.24; 10–19/day: OR 5.91, 95% CI 3.66 to 9.54; 20+/day: OR 6.11, 95% CI 3.59 to 10.42).
