School Asthma Care During COVID-19: What We Have Learned and What We Are Learning

Abstract

The focus of this article is to review school asthma care during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Asthma is listed as a risk factor in some guidelines, although children with asthma appear to not be at increased risk of severe respiratory outcomes compared with children without asthma during the pandemic. Differentiating COVID-19 from allergic disease is very difficult in the school-aged children. For school management, there is firm evidence that masks do not exacerbate underlying lung conditions including asthma, and evidence to date supports that children with asthma can learn in-person at school because they do not appear to be at increased risk of COVID-19 morbidity or mortality. For children and adolescents, the COVID-19 vaccine has been demonstrated to be safe and well tolerated. School asthma management includes remaining on prescribed asthma medications. Asthma management, as with management of all pediatric conditions, must also factor in the impact of adverse social determinants and health disparities. Broadly, the pandemic has also served as a call to resource stewardship and innovation and allowed practitioners to consider how this may impact asthma care moving forward.