More like “kills people who are most likely to smoke and/or breathe in highly polluted air.” Smoking is more or less on the way out in most other parts of the world.
If you do not smoke and have never lived in a city with poor, smoggy air, you are more likely to survive this or other illnesses that cause respiratory problems. Me, I lived in smoggy LA as a kid and I’m *still* down some 30% or so of lung capacity - and I never smoked. Asian city smokers can be down as much as 60% or more of lung function.
My wife is worried. She doesn't smoke, never did. But her father smoked a lot every day, especially cigars, so she was exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke. She's Chinese-American, and has had multiple cancers so has weak immunity due to chemo and radiation treatments. We're watching this outbreak closely. We're here in the SF Bay Area so it's a major transportation node to Asia. We were in a church this weekend and a kid was coughing behind her, annoyed her greatly. Hopefully this virus will end soon and we can all breathe easier (literally).