In this issue

Excerpt

This issue contains a miniseries of articles on the burning topic of COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has tremendously changed our private and professional life and burdened our health care systems. World-wide, research groups put their efforts on unraveling the pathogenesis of this disease and organ damage associated with severe and fatal course. So far, pathology has made significant contributions to answer crucial questions with great clinical impact. The mini-series particularly reflects the importance of autopsies for progress in COVID-19 research which is stressed in an editorial (https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s00428-020-02887-5; electron microscopic image of the virus is illustrated on the cover page). Further articles deal with different aspects of COVID-19 including pulmonary changes (https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s00428-020-02881-x;https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s00428-020-02886-6) and the feasibility of post-mortem examination (https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s00428-020-02861-1). …