緒言とまとめ

The COVID-19 Pandemic in Anesthesiology：Preparing for the Next Pandemic

　2019年12月に中国武漢で感染者が報告された，重症急性呼吸器症候群コロナウイルス2（severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2：SARS-CoV-2）による感染症のパンデミックでは，世界中で社会生活が大きく制限された。ワクチン接種の進行^1），自然感染者数の増加（累積数は2023年5月7日で33,772,464人^2）），重症化率の減少の結果，わが国では2023年5月8日に，感染症としての分類を2類相当からインフルエンザと同等の5類へ変更された^3）。

　The COVID-19 pandemic of infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, which began in December 2019, caused confusion around the world. In the early stages of the pandemic, information of uncertain credibility was disseminated through social networking services, causing anxiety among many people.

　Now that four years have passed since the start of the pandemic and social life has largely returned to normal, it is important for us, both as physicians engaged in medical treatment and as medical professionals educating society, to look back and gather essential information about the current and previous stages.

　In this special issue, infectious disease physicians, immunologists, anesthesiologists, emergency/intensive care physicians, basic researchers, and hospital administrators describe their current concerns. We believe that the contents of this special issue not only summarize the past four years, but also provide suggestions for the direction we should take in the future.