Asthma doesn’t seem to boost COVID-19 risk

Asthma does not seem to increase the risk of a person contracting COVID-19 or influence its severity, according to new research.

Researchers say further study is needed but those with the chronic respiratory disease don’t appear to be at a higher risk of getting extremely ill or dying from coronavirus.

“Older age and conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and obesity are reported risk factors for the development and progression of COVID-19,” says Reynold A. Panettieri Jr., a pulmonary critical care physician and director of the Rutgers University Institute for Translational Medicine and Science and coauthor of a paper in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

“However, people with asthma—even those with diminished lung function who are being treated to manage asthmatic inflammation—seem to be no worse affected by SARS-CoV-2 than a nonasthmatic person. There is limited data as to why this is the case—if it is physiological or a result of the treatment to manage the inflammation.”

Here, Panettieri explains what we know about asthma and COVID-19 and the important questions that remain:

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