The gap between clinical practice and limited evidence of traditional Chinese medicine for COVID-19

Background Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)is the set of knowledge and practices concerning life,health,illness prevention,and treatment that originated in China thousands of years ago.Presently,TCM is still one of the mainstream medical systems,and has been given an equal legal status and place as Western medicine in the healthcare system of China[1].Whether it was the plague in ancient times or the SARS and influenza A in the past decades,TCM has always played a major role in the prevention and treatment of diseases[2].