Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing pandemic characterized by high morbidity and mortality. Clinical factors that can identify patients at risk for worse outcomes can help in developing risk stratification models for judicious use of healthcare resources. A team of researchers from Italy and the USA performed a pooled analysis of published studies, for assessing the impact of CVD in patients with COVID-19. They found CVD was associated with 2.5-fold enhanced risk of severe disease.  Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, IJS Managing Editor spoke to Dr Gaurav Aggarwal from the Department of Medicine, Jersey City Medical Center, Jersey City, USA. Dr Gaurav Aggarwal is the submitting author for Cerebrovascular Disease is Associated with an Increased Disease Severity in Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): which is a pooled analysis of published literature