COVID-19 is an acute respiratory tract infection caused by a new human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which emerged around the city of Wuhan, China, in late 2019.^1,2  Since the first communication of the health alert by the Chinese authorities to the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31, 2019, the infection has spread globally, causing more than 65 million confirmed cases by December 2020 with an estimated mortality of more than 1.5 million.³  The WHO first declared an International Public Health Emergency (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020⁴  and later on March 11 it declared it to be a pandemic.⁵  Extraordinary technical and scientific developments have allowed the emergency approval of the first vaccine candidates whose first data of efficacy are in general quite reassuring.^6–8  Furthermore, although therapeutic approaches have been less promising so far, clinical trials are beginning to identify some compounds with the potential to control the development of the most serious forms of the disease.^9,10