By sampling from children with and without history of severe asthma exacerbations as well as healthy children without asthma, and experimentally modulating baseline IFN tone prior to RV infection, we aimed to determine whether low tonic IFN activity is a modifiable determinant of epithelial susceptibility to viral replication, downstream inflammatory responses, and exacerbation propensity. The gene discussed is IFNA1; the disease is asthma.