Over-the-counter inhalers suppress severe COVID symptoms, trial finds

“When we first began the trial back in March [2020], we were hoping for 50 per cent reduction [in risk of developing serious symptoms], which itself would have been very high,” he said.

“We got 90 per cent, which even with only a few hundred people is off the charts.

“And it’s not just the overall result – their temperatures are less, they get less fever, and they recover faster.”

Professor Nicolau said they realised in the early stages of the pandemic that people with asthma were under-represented in severe and fatal cases of COVID-19.

They hypothesised that the use of steroid inhalers, which suppress immune response in the lungs, could have a beneficial effect on COVID-19 patients who often suffered lung damage due to…