On March 11, 2020, our lives changed forever when the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 represented a new global pandemic. One year later, we reflect on where we started and where we are now. First, we pause to honor the lives of the 2.6 million people globally, including 525,000 Americans, who have perished. May their memories be a blessing.

From the beginning, it was clear that COVID-19 presented a very serious threat to the lung cancer community. Many global survey efforts were undertaken that have since shown that patients with lung cancer do indeed suffer from more severe COVID-19 disease and have mortality rates as high as 32%. Because of this danger, lung cancer advocacy groups in the US including GO2 for Lung Cancer, LUNGevity, Lung Cancer Research Foundation and Lung Cancer Foundation of America, rapidly mobilized to begin providing joint statements of scientifically-vetted information to our community in an effort to educate and empower people to make informed decisions that could keep them safe.

As the pandemic unfolded through the spring and into the summer of 2020, we saw immediate impacts across the lung cancer care continuum, with shuttering of research labs nationwide, reduced enrollment in clinical trials and steep declines in lung cancer screening and other preventive health services.

Strength Within the Lung Cancer Community

Lung cancer doesn’t stop in the face of a pandemic and our community is resilient. We saw rapid adoption of adaptations including mobilization of telehealth services nationwide, incorporation of elements such as remote consent to help restore clinical trial participation and campaigns to educate on the importance of maintaining crucial medical appointments and preventive screenings. We expect that many of these adaptations borne out of necessity will continue as best practices in a new and improved post-pandemic reality. The resiliency of our community is also evident in the dozen new drug approvals that occurred in 2020, despite the pandemic, with new approvals in targeted therapies, immunotherapy, for NSCLC and SCLC. We still have enormous momentum right now, despite the pandemic.

The end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 brought some of the scariest moments of the pandemic with the winter surge, but it also brought hope in the form of FDA emergency use authorizations (EUA) of new mRNA vaccines that are highly-effective at preventing severe COVID-19 disease. Although many were anxious over this new vaccine technology, once again, coordinated education by advocacy groups has helped dispel those initial fears. Now, we are joining forces to call for prioritization of patients with cancer, but especially those with lung cancer, for vaccination against COVID-19.

Looking Forward

What does the crystal ball reveal for the remainder of 2021? When will the pandemic end? We have many unanswered questions. The US has experienced a rocky vaccine rollout with differing policies state to state, supply issues and inconsistent guidance related to vaccination of those with cancer, but we finally appear to be making headway. We must still urge caution in continuing to practice public health measures even as more individuals get vaccinated, as we are not yet at levels of protection required for “herd immunity.” The scientific community continues to monitor the development of new virus variants to understand their impacts on transmission and whether current vaccine formulations confer protection against them. For survivors of COVID-19, many are left with lasting health impacts, and many efforts are underway to understand “long-hauler” disease and to monitor individuals for downstream impacts from infection.

Everyone wants to know, “When will normalcy resume? Can it?” We still have much to learn. The old saying is, “Hindsight is 2020.” Perhaps we should think of it as “2020 is foresight.” We must carry the lessons of the last year forward in a way that honors the lives of those we lost and commit ourselves to investing in science and improving access and equity in healthcare to protect the most vulnerable in our society.

We are committed to providing COVID-19 related information and resources to the lung cancer community. Explore our lung cancer and coronavirus resources and find support through our HelpLine at 1-800-298-2436 or support@go2.org.