With unprecedented pauses in air pollution emissions seen around the world in the spring of 2020 and virus mitigation behaviors being implemented for over a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique opportunity to better understand the impact of poor air quality on human health.

In particular, exposure reduction due to mask-wearing and stay-at-home orders has contributed to anecdotal reports of reduced exacerbations among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, allergies and other respiratory conditions.

To learn more about how the pandemic has altered care and disease management among these patients, we spoke with Courtney Blair, MD, an allergist and immunologist in Virginia.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Blair who also serves as the president of the Greater Washington Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Society, discusses factors that may have contributed to improvements in her patients’ respiratory health over the past 15 months.