Editorial

Ines Steffens,

Editor-in-chief,  Eurosurveillance, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden
 

On 8 April 2020, 100 days have passed since ProMed posted a ‘request for information’ about the emergence of a cluster of viral pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan [1]. Back then, a number of similarities triggered memories of the beginning of the severe respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic caused by the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2003 [2]. Today, the ProMed post of 30 December 2019 appears far back in time; the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has far exceeded the 2003 SARS epidemic in terms of magnitude and impact. Since the beginning of January 2020, weeks and days have been dominated by changes that had a major bearing on people’s professional and personal lives; changes in the epidemic, changes in knowledge about the virus and the disease, and changes in public health measures at a scale that only months ago were inconceivable.

Read the whole Editorial HERE.