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In an effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple vaccines based on different platforms were rapidly developed and used worldwide. As of April 7, 2023, over 13·3 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally. Although vaccines prevented symptomatic infections with SARS-CoV-2, these vaccines did not offer sterile immunity. In The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Nana Wu and colleagues1 present findings from a rapid living systematic evidence synthesis and meta-analysis on long-term eff...

We read with great interest the Personal View by Refika Ersu and colleagues, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine on Sept 23, 2022.1 The authors gave their expert opinion on the available treatment strategies for persistent paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) after adenotonsillectomy. We appreciate the efforts of the authors to shed light on this underestimated clinical entity; however, we are concerned that new data published throughout the past year might limit their summary on o...

Although more than 6·8 million deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 worldwide, survivors of COVID-19 can be affected in numerous ways across multiple organ systems. The entity of long COVID has been controversial and remains poorly defined, but it is now clear that COVID-19 has a long-term impact in many individuals. The complaints among COVID-19 survivors are myriad but include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and dyspnoea. However, the causes of these complain...

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the RECOVERY trial showed that anti-inflammatory therapy with 6 mg daily dexamethasone improved survival in patients requiring oxygen supplementation.1 Additional anti-inflammatory therapy with either interleukin-6 (IL-6) inhibitors or the Janus kinase inhibitor baricitinib was later shown to provide further benefit to such patients.2,3 However, because IL-6 inhibitors and Janus kinase inhibitors might be less appropriate for some patients (eg, those who are pregn...

We read with great interest the EuroECMO-COVID study1 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Roberto Lorusso and colleagues should be congratulated for this important research, which contributes to our understanding of the long-term outcomes of COVID-19 in the most severe forms of disease treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). However, we would like to draw attention to missing data that could have had a key role in lung recovery, extended ECMO duration, and associated complicatio...

In the slipstream of the extraordinary, worldwide natural experiment reducing close human contact to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2, a drastically but temporarily diminished transmission of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children occurred in the winter of 2020–21.1 This glimpse of a world without RSV gained momentum for the urgent need for preventive strategies for this prototypical paediatric pathogen, which causes a spectrum of mild upper-respiratory to severe lower-respiratory trac...

Upon reading Chloe Saunders and colleagues’ Comment,1 it is striking how this new paradigm is essentially the old paradigm for medically unexplained symptoms and contested illnesses.2 The authors advance an alleged philosophical problem they call “taboos based on a dualistic understanding of physical versus mental illness”. They assert such “Poorly integrated explanatory models contribute to poor care and stigma for people who are ill in these specific ways.”

Some people do not believe long COVID (also known as post-COVID-19 condition) is real. In fact, patients have reported that there are even doctors who sit in this camp, who might dismiss their symptoms as psychosomatic, or do not know how to recognise or treat long COVID. It is complicated, even for researchers. People might not have had severe symptoms when infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus, they might be young, without a significant medical history or risk factors. Although studies suggest around...

On 21 Jan, 2023, the results of the WEAN SAFE study were published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. It is an international observational study about weaning from mechanical ventilation with one of the largest cohorts ever published.1

This study demonstrated that spiritual needs are common among Danes. These findings have important implications for public health policies and clinical care. Care for the spiritual dimension of health is warranted as part of holistic, person-centered care in what we term ‘post-secular’ societies. Future research should inform how spiritual needs might be addressed in healthy and diseased populations in Denmark and other European countries and the clinical effectiveness of such interventions.