Fig. 1

a Oxygen flow requirement (median and range) during the first 48 h of admission in the group of patients who were intubated within the first 2 days based on the level of hypoxemia (4 patients, white bars) and those who were not immediately intubated (6 patients, grey bars). b Evolution of O₂ requirement in patients that were not intubated initially and did not require any mechanical ventilation thereafter (4 out of 6). Note that O₂ requirement increased over the first week in this group and required the use of HFNC in many patients. They all recovered within 12 days. c Duration of intubation in the “early-intubation” group and length of stay in the patients that were not initially intubated. The 2 patients whose intubation was delayed are displayed as (1) and (2). Patient 1 was extubated at day 16, while the second patient was still intubated at day 19 (when this report was submitted)