COVID19 is a new disease where data are being curated in real time presenting unique challenges to both providers and researchers. There have now been some 400,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the US and California is the epicenter of the pandemic at the present time. While vaccines are coming, we will be battling COVID-19 for at least another year or more and there are still many questions about the risk factors and short-term and long-term complications of COVID-19.

Management of patients with COVID19 is uncertain, often based on "real-world data" as few control trials have been conducted to provide reliable evidence for patient care. We need both randomized controlled trials to test new treatments and preventions as well as population data to address whether those treatments are safe and effective in a real world setting. Both clinicians and public health researchers need to fully understand the challenges and opportunities of these two important data paradigms in order to establish the totality of evidence needed to tackle the current COVID-19 health care crisis. There is much to learn about the risk and management of COVID in patients with cancer who are at exceptionally high risk of the infection and serious complications including death from COVID-19. This is the greatest healthcare crisis that the US has ever faced, and we need to learn as much and as rapidly as possible.