Ebook: COVID Reference ENG 2020.4 (18 June 2020)

Six weeks after the third edition, the world has changed again.
The pandemic is raging in South America, particularly in Brazil,
Ecuador and Peru. SARS-CoV-2 is under control in China, but in
Iran it is not. And in Europe, where most countries have weathered
the first wave and open borders to save a compromised
tourist season, is now wondering if and for how long this biological
drôle de guerre could last.
Science has moved ahead, too. We have seen a more complex
picture of COVID-19 and new clinical syndromes; the first data
from vaccine trials; first results from randomized controlled
drug studies; encouraging publications on monoclonal neutralizing
antibodies and serological evidence about the number of
people who have come into contact with SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately,
we have also seen the first science scandal with fake data
published in highly ranked journals. And we face new challenges
like long-term effects of COVID-19 and a Kawasaki-like inflammatory
multisystem syndrome in children.
For quite some time, prevention will continue to be the primary
pillar of pandemic control. In future waves of the SARS-CoV-2
pandemic, we will focus on the conditions under which SARSCoV-
2 is best transmitted: crowded, closed (and noisy) places and
spaces. Although hospitals are not noisy, they are crowded and
closed, and the battle against the new coronavirus will be decided
at the very center of our healthcare system. Over the next
months and maybe years, one of all of our top priorities will be
to give all healthcare workers and patients perfect personal protective
equipment.

Bernd Sebastian Kamps & Christian Hoffmann
7 June 2020