In addition to showing promise in targeting viruses that cause exacerbations, the induction of autophagy may also aid in fighting novel viruses that can lead to pandemics. For example, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2-mediated human respiratory infection, leading to COVID-19, was first reported in late 2019 [137]. By March 2020, the World Health Organization had declared a pandemic in response to the virus. SARS-CoV-2 has caused numerous deaths, due to lack of a potent effective treatment, where antivirals such as remdesevir, favipiravir, etc., although minimally effective in reducing the hospitalization time of severe lung disease subjects, are in short supply. Moreover due to the novel nature of the virus, susceptible population groups and aerosol-based rapid transmission, we see variations in the control of transmission and mortality between different countries, where mitigation measures are dependent on socio-economic, health care disparities and political will [137,220]. As such, there is a need to rapidly deliver on potent treatments in addition to vaccines, and autophagy augmentation with drugs that are FDA-approved for other conditions (Figure 2), provide significant potential for clinical validation and rapid translation. In fact, a recent pre-print study that we mentioned above has investigated the use of spermidine (an autophagy inducer), MK-2206 (an AKT inhibitor), and niclosamide (a Beclin-1 stabilizer) in the treatment of COVID-19, and has been found to demonstrate some therapeutic benefits as an antiviral treatment against the virus [138]. Thus, autophagy induction may provide a beneficial treatment of the virus. However, further investigation into these drugs and other autophagy inducers is needed. Still, the mechanism of autophagy induction may prove crucial as a treatment of COVID-19 over classical antivirals and provide a tool to end the pandemic. This mechanism may also prevent a future epidemic or pandemic by offering possible treatments to novel viruses without vaccines and antivirals that take significant development time for each strain.