Introduction
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) originating from Wuhan, China has now rapidly transitioned into a global pandemic. The etiological agent of COVID-19, known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has infected more than 2.3 million people worldwide causing 157,847 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of April 20, 2020.1 The United States alone currently makes up more than 745,000 of the infected patients, with numerous cases rising everyday.2 Given the high rates of transmission especially through asymptomatic carriers, many governing bodies and leaders have called for its citizens to stay at home to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system and its limited resources.
While COVID-19 has undoubtedly triggered serious economic losses, the pandemic will have profound and lasting implications on graduate medical education. University hospitals have had to take the unprecedented route of suspending classes and mandating all non-essential staff to stay at home. Though many medical students have mobilized to create organizations to support frontline workers, medical training is likely to suffer without emergent measures to provide continuing education. Particularly for those interested in a surgical field, it is challenging to develop a curriculum that is able to closely replicate the experience of the operating room. The situation is even more complex for students who are undecided on their specialty choice, as COVID-19 may affect desires to match into historically competitive fields, such as otolaryngology. We hope to emphasize how COVID-19 will impact exposure to otolaryngology and residency decision making, as well as propose solutions to mitigate disruption to medical education.