8. Sensitivity analyses for the comparison: systemic corticosteroids plus standard care versus standard care (plus/minus placebo).

Outcome	Main analyses	Risk of bias (excluding studies at high risk of bias)	Fixed‐effect model or random‐effects model	Preprint (excluding preprints)	Platform trial (excluding platform trialsa)
All‐cause mortality up to 30 days	RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.97; 9 studies, 7898 participants	There were no RCTs with high risk of bias concerning this outcome	RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.97; 9 studies, 7898 participants	There were no RCTs as a preprint concerning this outcome	RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.82 to 1.08; 7 studies, 1094 participants
All‐cause mortality up to 120 days	RR 0.74, 95% CI 0.23 to 2.34; 3 studies, 485 participants	There were no RCTs with high risk of bias concerning this outcome	RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.15; 3 studies, 485 participants	There were no RCTs as a preprint concerning this outcome	There were no platform trials concerning this outcome
Clinical improvement: discharged alive	RR 1.07, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.11; 3 studies, 6786 participantsb	There were no RCTs with high risk of bias concerning this outcome	RR 1.36, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.96; 3 studies, 6786 participantsc	There were no RCTs as a preprint concerning this outcome	RR 1.65, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.21; 2 studies, 361 participants

^aExcluding platform trials: Angus 2020; Horby 2021.

^bUsing the fixed‐effect model.

^c Using the random‐effects model.

CI: confidence interval; RR: risk ratio