In 2020 and 2021, SARS-CoV-2 put enormous pressure on our health-care systems. Countless
patients with COVID-19 were admitted to hospitals for oxygen support, or to intensive
care units (ICUs) when respiratory failure required a more intensive treatment. This
hectic situation did not stop the ICU community from providing excellent care, even
though most clinicians working in the early stages of the pandemic struggled with
many uncertainties, including how best to provide respiratory support. Meanwhile,
the critical care community was able to design and conduct a large volume of clinical
studies, perhaps as much as we had seen in the two preceding decades combined.