TY - JOUR T1 - Pre-COVID-19 Lung Function and Other Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19 in First Responders JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00610-2020 SP - 00610-2020 AU - Michael D. Weiden AU - Rachel Zeig-Owens AU - Ankura Singh AU - Theresa Schwartz AU - Yang Liu AU - Brandon Vaeth AU - Anna Nolan AU - Krystal L. Cleven AU - Karen Hurwitz AU - Shenecia Beecher AU - David J. Prezant Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2020/10/15/23120541.00610-2020.abstract N2 - Starting 1/3/2020, New York City (NYC) suffered an intense COVID-19 outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. By 31/5/2020, there were 203 248 diagnosed patients, 52 301 hospitalisations and 17 756 confirmed deaths in NYC [1]. Cardiac arrests with resuscitation increased 3-fold compared with the same time 2019 period [2]. Despite proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and compliance with Centers for Disease Control guidelines [3], medical leave for suspected/confirmed COVID-19 in Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) responders was substantial, affecting 40.7% of emergency medical service providers (EMS) and 34.5% of firefighters [4]. We examined risk factors for COVID-19 diagnosis and severe COVID-19 disease (hospitalisation or death) in FDNY responders.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. Weiden has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Zeig-Owens reports grants from NIOSH, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: Ms. Singh has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Ms. Schwartz has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Mr. Liu has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Mr. Vaeth has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Nolan has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Cleven has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Hurwitz has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Beecher has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. prezant has nothing to disclose. ER -