In 2020, the attention of the medical community was stolen by the novel coronavirus pandemic. In the setting of the rapidly evolving and unpredictable deadly disease, there was little guidance regarding the protection of healthcare providers while delivering cardiac surgical care. In a timely publication, Haft and colleagues provided guidance for patient prioritization by proposing a 3-tiered triage algorithm to help cardiac surgery centers utilize resources, serve their patients, and protect their medical teams. The authors stressed hospital creativity and collaboration and also provided recommendations to ensure outpatient monitoring of symptom progression to allow timely intervention.

Similarly, in the face of the pandemic, Bakaeen and colleagues advocated for caution and recognition of the potential for lethal consequences of suspending elective cardiac surgery in patients deemed at high risk. They proposed a guide for staged reopening and stressed the importance of community education regarding the safety of the hospital environment, particularly when weighed against the possibly fatal risks associated with delaying treatment of reversible cardiovascular diseases.