LAUSR

I’m writing this in April 2020, when the world is suffering through the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything has drastically changed since we started planning this issue. The template for the next year is discussed way in advance, and each member of the editorial board selects an issue for the upcoming year. That means that around June–July last year (2019), each of us knew which issue we would be involved with (and responsible for). My task was to select interesting and educational topics in infectious diseases. Little did I know that by the time this issue was completed and being sent to the printing office, almost everyone would be having one thought, and only one thought: the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic! We are living in very challenging and uncharted times, no matter in what part of the world we are. This virus has affected everyone, with a morbidity and mortality that none of us had seen before—except if you were alive during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. I certainly hope the final numbers of the COVID-19 pandemic will be nowhere close to the flu pandemic of 1918. As issue editor, when we embark on the process …