Enlightenment from clinical trials on Chinese medicine for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

als weakened the quality of evidence. Second, rigorously designed RCTs could not be completed due to the special environment dealing with COVID-19, which was a novel and highly infectious By June 28, 2020, there were more than 10 million confirmed ases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and nearly 500,000 eaths in about 216 countries and regions.1 The number of cases is till increasing. In China, the spread of SARS-CoV-2 has been effecively controlled after strict management, with a total of 83,534 ases and 4634 deaths (by June 30).2 The integration of Traditional hinese Medicine (TCM) with western interventions is a successul experience for the treatment of COVID-19.3 About 91.5% of the onfirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases in China had been treated ith TCM, alone or integrated with conventional western medicine WM).4 There are hundreds of registered protocols and completed clincal studies. Evidence from published clinical trials suggested that CM is helpful to treat COVID-19 and decrease mortality.5,6 Howver, the voice of doubt about the efficacy of TCM for COVID-19 an still be heard. In opponents’ opinion, TCM was not approved to e effective for COVID-19, unless double-blind placebo-controlled andomized clinical trials (RCTs) were performed to provide vidence.7 The controversy is mainly focused on: what is reliable linical evidence? We aimed to clarify the questions of clinical evience of TCM for COVID-19 from the viewpoint of evidence-based edicine and real-world study.