A third standard was the transfer of the patient from a high‐risk surgical procedure to nonsurgical therapy when this represented an equivalent standard of care. The most common type of surgery for which this transition occurred was for T1 and T2 oropharyngeal cancer, with negative or early stage neck disease, where radiation with or without chemotherapy is a standard alternative treatment. Endoscopic LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) resections (transoral LASER microscopic [TLM] surgery), usually performed for supraglottic or glottic cancer at our institution, represented a similar category. The possibility of inhalation of smoke plume and the proximity of the surgeon to the endoscope and the patient's oral cavity make these high‐risk procedures for viral transmission in either direction.