December 8, 2020, Vol 324, No. 22, Pages 2238-2334

This Viewpoint uses clinical observations of the natural course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection to propose 3 phases of illness: acute infection (what people commonly refer to with the COVID-19 designation); postacute hyperinflammatory illness (referred to clinically as multisystem inflammatory syndrome); and late inflammatory sequelae, manifest as enduring cardiac, neurological, and psychological symptoms.

This Viewpoint summarizes evidence suggesting that, counter to expectation, older adults as a group may be more resilient to the anxiety, depression, and stress-related mental health disorders characteristic of younger populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Viewpoint discusses possible parallels between the distortion in sensory information and faulty monitoring of ideas characteristic of some patients with neurodegenerative diseases (dementia with Lewy bodies and Capgras syndrome, frontotemporal dementia) and the creation and maintenance of false conspiratorial beliefs about the COVID-19 pandemic in healthy populations that has hobbled an effective national response in the US.

This Viewpoint summarizes a National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) consensus panel report recommending ways to reduce populations in prisons and jails as a means to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission and the roles clinicians, health systems, and insurers can play in in process.

This Viewpoint proposes that a polypill combination of a β-blocker, renin angiotensin inhibitor, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, and sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor might be the most efficient way to deliver guideline-directed HFrEF therapy, and proposes a research roadmap to design and evaluate the pill and implementation strategies for getting it to patients.