TY - JOUR T1 - The impact of the first COVID-19 surge on Severe Asthma Patients in the UK. Which is worse: The virus or the lockdown? JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00768-2020 SP - 00768-2020 AU - Steven J. Smith AU - John Busby AU - Liam G. Heaney AU - Paul E. Pfeffer AU - David J. Jackson AU - Freda Yang AU - Stephen J. Fowler AU - Andrew Menzies-Gow AU - Elfatih Idris AU - Thomas Brown AU - Robin Gore AU - Shoaib Faruqi AU - Paddy Dennison AU - James W. Dodd AU - Simon Doe AU - Adel H. Mansur AU - Radhika Priyadarshi AU - Joshua Holmes AU - Andrew Hearn AU - Hamsa Al-Aqqad AU - Lola Loewenthal AU - Angela Cooper AU - Lauren Fox AU - Mayurun Selvan AU - Michael G. Crooks AU - Alison Thompson AU - Daniel Higbee AU - Michelle Fawdon AU - Vishal Nathwani AU - LeanneJo Holmes AU - Rekha Chaudhuri A2 - , Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2020/10/29/23120541.00768-2020.abstract N2 - Respiratory viral infections are a significant cause of morbidity in asthma [1]. Patients with severe asthma were assumed to be at greater risk from novel coronavirus-2 (COVID-19) infection. In the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple countries enacted social containment policies. In the UK a countrywide lockdown occurred in March 2020, with stringent self-isolation (“shielding”) advice for high-risk patients, including people with severe asthma.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. Smith has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Busby has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: L.G. Heaney reports sponsorship for attending international scientific meetings from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GSK and Napp Pharmaceutical; lecture fees and advisory boards fees from Novartis, Hoffman la Roche/Genentech Inc., Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Evelo Biosciences, Teva, Theravance and Circassia; institutional grant funding from Medimmune, Novartis UK, Roche/Genentech Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline. He is Academic Lead for the Medical Research Council Stratified Medicine UK Consortium in Severe Asthma, which involves industrial partnerships with Amgen, Genentech/Hoffman la Roche, AstraZeneca, Medimmune, GlaxoSmithKline, Aerocrine and Vitalograph.Conflict of interest: P.E. Pfeffer reports grants and travel fees from GlaxoSmithKline, and speaker and travel fees from AstraZeneca, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: Dr. Jackson has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: J.F. Yang reports speakers fees and travel support from AstraZeneca, and travel support from GlaxoSmithKline, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: Dr. Fowler has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Menzies-Gow reports grants and personal fees from Astra Zeneca, personal fees from Glaxo SmithKline, personal fees from Sanofi, personal fees from Novartis, personal fees and non-financial support from Teva, personal fees from Vectura, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: Dr. IDRIS has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: T. Brown reports grants from Asthma UK and Innovate UK; personal fees and nonfinancial support from AstraZeneca, grants, speaker fees and travel expenses from GlaxoSmithKlines; speaker fees, advisory board fees, conference fees and travel expenses from Teva; conference fees and travel expenses from Napp Pharmaceuticals; and personal fees and nonfinancial support from Novartis, all outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: R. Gore reports speaker fees from GSK, Astra Zeneca and UK outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: Dr. Faruqi has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Dennison has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: J.W. Dodd reports honoraria for educational meetings and expert advisory boards from Chiesi, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline; and registration, travel and accommodation for international conferences from Chiesi, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: Dr. Doe has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: A.H. Mansur reports personal and departmental fees for talks, advisory board, grants for service development, sponsorship to attend conferences from AstraZeneca, GSK, Novartis, Chiesi, Napp, Sanofi and Teva, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: Dr. Priyadarshi has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Mr. Holmes has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Hearn has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Mrs. Al-Aqqad has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Lola LoewenthalConflict of interest: Dr. Cooper has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Lauren Fox has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Selvan has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Crooks has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Alison ThompsonConflict of interest: Dr. Higbee has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Michelle FawdonConflict of interest: Dr. Nathwani has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: L. Holmes reports speaker fees from Novartis and AstraZeneca, and conference sponsorship from Teva, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: R. Chaudhuri reports advisory board meetings, research grant, speaker fees and conference travel support from AstraZeneca, advisory board meeting and speaker fees from GSK, advisory board meeting fees and nonfinancial support from Teva, advisory board meeting and speaker fees from Novartis, advisory board meeting fees and nonfinancial support from Chiesi, and conference travel support from Napp Pharmaceuticals, outside the submitted work. ER -