I think that might be because nicotine is an ACE2 antagonist. So, not really “frenchest thing ever”, but informed by science (and still, a desperate measure - I guess getting this though the ethics board would have been difficult at any other time).
As always, this is very much preliminary, and just looking at this:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2020&q=+nicotine+ACE2&btnG=
makes me think that quite a lot of researchers are trying to cover all possible angles right now.
ETA: I hope no one tries to start smoking now! I mean it! Don’t even jest about it. Some people will be stupid.
From the results above:
