With hospitalizations rapidly rising as the COVID-19 pandemic washes across the world in a winter wave, researchers are racing to develop treatments that protect the increasing number of ventilated patients. One option focuses on protecting muscles critical to breathing.

With the world experiencing another wave of the coronavirus pandemic that threatens to overwhelm hospitals and testing capacity, the ability to quickly diagnose COVID-19 based on alternative methodologies has become increasingly important. For patients with respiratory symptoms, review of CT scans emerged as a relatively reliable indicator of infection with SARS-CoV-2 from the first days of its emergence, but the need for more accurate readings remains.