Table 2.

Quotes on nicotine use during COVID-19 pandemic.

Theme	Exemplary quotes (participant ID)
Being at home more
Increased use	“Yeah, and this is something I think about often actually being at home or I smoke more than I would normally in a normal day. So say I was going into the office. I work a nine to five job, I’m out of the house from eight in the morning until six o’clock so, I don’t smoke during those hours. I smoke once after I get home and then I would maybe smoke one before bed. Now I work from home. So my access to them is increased, my time, my free time, the time on my hands is increased. So as a time filler. It’s just, it’s more readily available um it’s there and it’s something to do so.” (10006) “Um, I would say it’s probably increased it because it’s something that you can do like at home like by yourself. I know a few of my friends were like, I wish I like had my vape pen because like there’s nothing to do right now. And like I guess like I have seen like a lot of adults like smoking more. So I think people are just kind of like bored.” (10011)
Decreased use	“But I think people have been spending more time at home. And usually people probably smoke away from home, I would imagine. I mean, some people probably smoke at home too. Instances I’m more familiar with is away from home.” (10007)
Product use changes	“Um, with the stress levels and things being the way that they are and also trying to get a different variety when it comes to flavors and things like that, you know, when I, now that I have more time, I guess, more off time I’m I have more time to try different flavors and different things. Whereas when the coronavirus, before the coronavirus it was usually just the fruit flavored things that I was getting you know, sweet or things like that. So I feel like it’s definitely helped me branch out and try different flavors and products as well.” (10053)
Social use decreased
Decreased use	“And then also, like, since there are less, like no people to interact with you don’t get that share of nicotine that you do when I guess when I’m around people, because I’m usually most of people that I’m around usually have some form of nicotine.” (10028)
Use changes	“Participant: Because like some of the tobacco usage is based on like where I would hang out with friends, like in a bar or restaurant or club or something like that. So, I wasn’t obviously going to those places in the last four or five weeks so yeah, that’s slightly changed. Interviewer: Like when you’re saying, you’ll choose a certain flavor based on where you’re going to use it, that that’s the part that changed? Participant: Right, yeah.” (10036)
Access changes	“Yeah, I personally buy because a lot of times I was socializing lot more. So people would just have them when I go out, but now I buy them lot more myself.” (10062)
Stress
Increased use	“Um yeah I think it’s it’s like a lot of people’s coping mechanism for stress and for anxiety. So I think a lot of people’s pre, like conditions are heightened now like if you were smoking before you probably are smoking a little more now, if you’re not working or, you know, your life’s kind of all up in the air. But when you ‘r a lot more busy and focused it’s a lot easier to like be distracted and not think about smoking all the time.” (10030)
Barrier to quitting	“And I am smoking more than I would usually so I’m trying to, you know, have a mental chat with myself. I guess you could say, and try to get away from that because I do want to stop smoking. I was planning to stop smoking before this coronavirus pandemic happened. And, you know, everybody was stuck in the house and stressed. Not knowing what was going to happen or it was very stressful. So I think that coronavirus definitely impacted not only my health, but also my habits.” (10053)
Health concerns
Decreased use	“My nicotine has significantly decreased to the point where right now. Like, I’m not even buying anything because the coronavirus when it first came out, I was like, oh, God, why did I ever start smoking because usually like that leads to long term effects. Right. And some people are not really scared about nicotine products like, like e-cigs for especially some people aren’t scared about because there isn’t enough like conclusive evidence to say that it’s going to o this, that, or the other thing to you. You know, it’s not good for you. You know it’s bad, but I still think the research is going to show that it’s better than cigarettes, but still very bad for you. So this like there’s no long term. You know, scary results to be scared of right now, but with the coronavirus we were finding out that like you know, smoking and all that stuff is making the after effects of that worse for you. So I definitely was like, holy crap. I have to stop.” (10044)
Use location changes	“I don’t smoke out in public anymore I smoke at home like in my backyard. I don’t, like you can’t smoke driving down the road or you can’t smoke out in public or you can’t smoke. No. Nobody smokes in public anymore. You don’t see anybody smoking on street or anybody outside of building, you don’t do that because that means you have to take off your mask.” (10075)
Purchase changes	“Yeah, um, I buy everything except for cigarillos online now and I just have them mailed directly to me. Um cigarillos I still have to buy in a store, but what I’ve been doing is I’ve been going to grocery stores instead of gas stations now, because it seems like a gas stations sometimes they’re a little bit dirtier. And there might be like more hands touching the actual packaging everywhere where a grocery store you know as behind glass counter. I have to go get it. And ask somebody to get it for me and everything. I feel like I’m much less exposed Corona that way.” (10052)
Product access	“That, it has made it a lot more difficult, especially say that the beginning of the lockdowns you know tobacco shops, they are shops were not prioritized as essential businesses, which despite being a patron of them, I wholeheartedly agree they are not essential. So it limited the, the local supply you know, it’s yeah like my, my vape shop that I normally go to, I think, in mid-March they closed down. And it wasn’t until I want to say the middle of May, that they began opening for like four hours a week to, you know, to only do like phone orders that you pick up at door, you know, non-contact. So it was very restrictive for me to, to get the products that I use. I, you know I shopped online. I have and I still do.” (10049)
Financial issues	“… it has it has limited, limited me only due to financial concerns. You know, I lost my job so money has been tight, finances have been you know, something that I have to stretch over a course of the last few months um so my normal procedure of going through the process of buying my normal weekly amount had to come down. I had to cut down on. In fact, I had to stop smoking for a little bit, just so I can save some money. So it definitely impacted it.” (10035)