There are numerous reports of reversible cysteine protease inhibitors, which include aldehydes,10−13 thio- or oxymethylketones,14 cyclic ketones,15 amidomethylketones,16 nitriles,17,18 or various 1,2-dicarbonyl motifs.19,20 The electrophilic carbon of these chemotypes reacts reversibly with the sulfur atom of an active-site cysteine forming a covalently bound tetrahedral complex. Stabilization of this charged protein–ligand transition state by an “oxyanion hole” present in the active site has been observed with certain inhibitor classes by X-ray crystallography and NMR.21,22 A recent report describes the optimization of a series of peptidomimetics designed with an α-ketoamide warhead, which achieves broad-spectrum inhibition against the Mpro for several coronaviruses and enteroviruses. Importantly, the reported protease potencies correlate to antiviral potencies, and the authors suggest that the reported SARS CoV-1 3CLpro activity of their lead could be predictive of the SARS CoV-2 3CLpro activity.23