The election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is a win for facts, research and empathy. The election of Biden and Kamala Harris is a win for facts, research and empathy. Each of these must be deployed to fight the pandemic, combat misinformation, mitigate climate change and rebuild the United States' global relationships.

Arbidol (ARB) is a broad-spectrum antiviral drug. However, its effects on virus infectious diseases remain unclear. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of ARB in infectious virus diseases. We searched up to March 2020 in MEDLINE (Ovid SP), EMBASE (Ovid SP), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), for studies investigating ARB in virus infectious diseases. Descriptive analysis was made on the main results of the eligible articles that meet the inclusion criteria. Fifty-two studies were included finally, which involving influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronaviruses (SARS-CoV), middle east respiratory syndrome-coronaviruses (MERS-CoV), hepatitis c virus (HCV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), severe acute respiratory syndromes-coronaviruses-2 (SARS-CoV-2), chikungunya virus (CHIKV), hantaan virus (HTNV), zika virus (ZIKV), coxsackievirus, lassa virus(LASV), Ebola virus (EBOV) and adenovirus (ADV). ARB is effective in the above viruses. Two studies showed that ARB was effective in SARS-CoV-2. In vivo and in vitro studies showed ARB had the capability of inhibiting SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, HCV, HSV, ZIKV, CV, HTNV, ZIKV, CHIKV, LASV, EBOV, and ADV. Conclusion Clinical studies are still needed to confirm the efficacy of ARB in novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19).