Scientists unsure why asthma sufferers aren’t at greater risk for severe COVID-19 infection

Previous findings link COVID-19 severity to preexisting cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. Oddly, however, people with asthma aren’t more likely to contract the virus nor are they more likely to have severe symptoms. In a new editorial published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, researchers at Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science discuss this puzzling finding and explain a number of factors that may keep people with asthma safe from severe COVID-19 infection. “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 Institute for Translational Medicine and Science, in a statement. To read the full story.