On February 16, 2020 the executive committee of the European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM) met in Malaga, Spain, to prepare for the EFIM annual congress to be held in March 2021. As usual, it was a very pleasant and fruitful meeting, which allowed us to meet face-to-face, work hard and enjoy the company and the city. Less than a week later, Prof. Nicola Montano, from Milan (Italy), the president of the EFIM at that time, warned the EFIM executive committee members of the alarming outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Lombardy.
