Confronting the COVID ‐19 Pandemic: December 2019–May 2020

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic was officially declared by the World Health Organization on 11 March, 2020 From the initial public reports from China in December 2019, the contagion blazed its way from ground zero in Wuhan, China into 165 countries The health disaster caught the planet by surprise At the time of this writing, 6 6 million COVID-19 cases were confirmed worldwide Central and South America are the latest hotspots Utilizing state-of-the-art science and technology, industry, government, and academic enterprises internationally are engaged in a monumental campaign to combat and eliminate the viral threat Small-molecule therapeutics discovery largely by way of drug repurposing and accelerated vaccine development are at the forefront of this campaign Within five months time, 500 unique therapeutic agents have advanced into development, >150 clinical trials initiated, and seven agents authorized for emergency use This article presents a snapshot of these activities as of 29 May 2020