How Coronavirus Disease 2019 Changed Dermatology Practice in 1 Year Around the World: Perspectives from 11 Countries

When cases of a mysterious pneumonia debuted in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in early December 2019, few people could have anticipated the outbreak’s trajectory. Within 2 weeks, scientists identified the responsible pathogen as a novel virus that is 96% identical to the bat coronavirus BatCoV RaTG13. On January 13, 2020, the first case outside of mainland China was reported in Thailand, and 1 month later, the disease had swept across the world, impacting 36 countries in 6 continents. As hospitalizations and deaths skyrocketed, the respiratory disease, later renamed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), exposed the ugly underbelly of societal inequities and threatened to collapse world economies and the sturdiest of health care systems. By March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic