Medical publishing during the COVID-19 pandemic: then and now

Abstract

The earliest cases of SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID (CO for ‘corona,’ ‘VI’ for ‘virus,’ and ‘D’ for disease)-19 occurred around 1 December 2019 [1]. Later in the month, the World Health Organization (WHO) China Country office received notification of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. Viral analysis of samples [2] matched the genome from lineage B of the genus beta-coronavirus showing great than 85% identity with a bat SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)-like CoV. The international WHO received notification between 31 December 2019 and 3 January 2020 of 44 patients with pneumonia of unknown etiology. On 11 January 2020, the Chinese National Health Commission identified the source of exposures at a seafood market in Wuhan City (Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market) (reviewed in Becker RC) [3]. At the time of this writing, 29 January 2021, there have been 113,000,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2.5 million deaths, reported to the WHO (Fig. 1) (www.who.int/covid;acces sed 6 March 2021).