Should We Prescribe Antibiotics in Older Patients Presenting COVID-19 Pneumonia?

The COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for a particularly high level of morbidity in the older population.1 Most deaths are the result of severe viral pneumonia, for which therapeutic management is still a matter of debate. Corticosteroids are to date the only therapeutic class that has proven benefit in terms of mortality in hypoxemic SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia,2 whereas the benefit of tocilizumab remains unclear.3 However, such therapeutics are associated with increased risk of bacterial infection, especially among older individuals.