Smokers 'four times less likely' to contract Covid-19, prompting nicotine patch trials on patients?

can you cite a legitimate source or did you just recall something you heard

Perhaps because no one wants to be near them they're good at social distancing. 

If there is any truth to that unsubstantiated claim it would most likely be because no one wants to go anywhere near a smoker and therefore they are less likely to come in contact with the virus.  Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor and has no known protective effects. 

Smokers 10 times mire likely to die from metastatic lung cancer, whoopie!

Who says smoking is bad for you?

The researchers, for a few.

From their paper:

"While nicotine may prevent smokers from contracting the virus, those who do catch it could face more serious symptoms due to the harsh effect of tobacco smoke on the lungs."

Where did you get that? Is that another of Trump's wacky ideas? Everything I've read says that smokers are at more risk because they're lungs are damaged. 

""It's now pretty clear that there is data to show that if you are a smoker, you're more likely to have adverse outcomes from COVID-19, need mechanical ventilation and to die than if you're not a smoker," said Richard Castriotta, a doctor specializing in pulmonary critical care at Keck Medicine of USC."

OK- I found your source. A count in French hospitals showed a relatively low percentage of smokers being treated for COVID. But that article concludes "Moreover, the smokers who did catch COVID-19 often developed more severe symptoms because of the cumulative damage caused by tobacco smoke to the lungs."