Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic shattered our world, whether at home or in our professional lives. Many of our colleagues or us were in the frontlines. Family and friends turned ill. Meanwhile, researchers all around the world rushed to understand this new disease, evaluate its course and find a cure. As rheumatologists and researchers in rheumatology, we have a deep understanding of the immune system, whether in reaction to an infection or during the course of a rheumatologic disease, and its interplay with the wide range of immunomodulatory treatments available. We also need to understand how this disease impacts our patients. Therefore, since the beginning of the pandemic, the rheumatology community is at the forefront of COVID-19 related research. From the first letter on COVID-19 in March 20201 to the end of September, the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (ARD) have published more than 200 letters, correspondences, originals studies and other articles (figure 1). The first publication on COVID-19 in ARD by Figueroa-Parra et al ‘Are my patients with rheumatic diseases at higher risk of COVID-19?’ already illustrated the most burning questions of the rheumatology community: the potential risks of infection or severe outcome associated with the rheumatic diseases themselves or their therapy and the efficacy of antimalarial drugs in treating COVID-19.1 Other topics that were widely discussed were the drug shortage of hydroxychloroquine, the use of telemedicine and the effect of the pandemic on patients. In this brief review of ARD publications on COVID-19, we will explore how perceptions and information changed and how interests shifted from one topic to another during the last months.