key: cord-0905107-exxgjovv authors: Woolley, Ian; Steinfort, Daniel; Szer, Jeff title: COVID‐19: looking backward date: 2021-08-22 journal: Intern Med J DOI: 10.1111/imj.15461 sha: ec97be4e6c40260167e66f38c34a651acd8bcd78 doc_id: 905107 cord_uid: exxgjovv nan are descriptions of how different groups have responded to the pandemic in the form of cohort studies, [8] [9] [10] and sharing individual experiences as case reports, 11, 12 but also marked is the number of editorials and reflections on what the pandemic means to us as individuals, medical systems and societies. [13] [14] [15] This tsunami of papers has been noted elsewhere, 16 and reflects enormous growth in knowledge and interest surrounding the pandemic, although it has to be noted the total number of manuscripts received by IMJ went from 1494 in 2019 to 2160 in 2020, of which only 284 were COVID-19 related. At the time of writing in July 2021, 419 COVID-19-related papers have been submitted to IMJ, of which 25% have been accepted. We have been very careful to ensure that accepted COVID-19-related submissions have met appropriate academic standards while acknowledging the need for timely publication of those accepted. Globally, it has been estimated that there have been more than 500 000 COVID-19-related publications to date. 17 Doctors have written about epidemics at least since the time of the eponymous work attributed to Hippocrates more than 25 centuries ago to tell 'what has already come to pass, understand what is happening now, (and) forecast what is to come'. 18 Thucydides, although not a doctor, used similar words in his description of the Great Plague of Athens: 'I will tell it how it was, so that if it ever should occur again, someone … might be able to gain foreknowledge and not be in the dark'. 18 Doctors and other healthcare workers have often played a role in paying witness to their patients and the events around them. Perhaps this has been especially so in a pandemic where so many have died isolated, away from the comfort of their loved ones. When Médecins Sans Frontières was founded by doctors and journalists in response to the Biafran War, the concept of témoignage or bearing witness was placed as one of the key values of the organisation. In particular, when we write about our patients, we are writing in order to bear witness to them, and when we read those works we are also bearing witness in turn to the experience of their writers, which is us. beyond the COVID-19 pandemic Perceptions of telehealth and cardiac care during the COVID-19 pandemic Effect of the COVID-19 induced phase of massive telehealth uptake on end-user satisfaction Outcomes for the first wave of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 in the South Australian context: a retrospective audit Respiratory failure, clinical course and community management of COVID-19 patients in a large Australian cohort Presenting symptoms of COVID-19 and clinical outcomes in hospitalised older adults Late presentation of organising pneumonia in COVID-19 Ventilation perfusion lung SPECT/CT in pregnancy during COVID-19 Going viral with kindness COVID-19 pandemic and the tension between the need to act and the need to know COVID-10: it's changed us COVID-19 and the tsunami of information COVID-19: Dataset of Global Research by Dimensions When was Hippocrates? The authors thank Aparna Avasarala and Virginia Savickis, IMJ editorial office, for their help with COVID-19 submission-related details for this paper and all their work during the pandemic.