FOREWORD

It is quite amazing that a microorganism (that has a genetic code of only approximately 0.001% of the human genome) has changed all of our lives while resulting in extensive global political, economic and medical turbulence over the past several months. As the seventh coronavirus to become infectious in the human population (causing three global outbreaks in the past two decades), the novel SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 is a betacoronovirus that shares 79% of its genetic sequence with SARS-CoV. In this special issue of Disease-a-Month, Robin B. McFee DO and her colleagues present various perspectives on the pathology, clinical consequences and possible treatments of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.