COVID-19 in solid organ transplantation: an analysis of the impact on transplant activity and wait lists

The limited knowledge about COVID-19, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), makes mortality figures hard to interpret in the undetermined prevalence of an asymptomatic infection. Treatments are currently being tested, but without proof of an effective vaccination, the fear of further detrimental outcomes, as a result of a second wave, persists. One of the main differences in the death toll among the various countries seems related to the different response to the outbreak: early measures of containment as lockdown, revealed their effectiveness in mitigating the virus spread, with the earliest the lockdown, the lower the death toll.