Menter T, Haslbauer JD, Nienhold R, et al. - Researchers sought to characterize the microscopic changes in the lungs associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) via assessing the autopsy findings of 21 COVID‐19 patients hospitalized at the University Hospital Basel and at the Cantonal Hospital Baselland, Switzerland. In these cases, respiratory failure with exudative diffuse alveolar damage and massive capillary congestion was the primary cause of death; this is often accompanied by microthrombi despite anticoagulation. Superimposed bronchopneumonia was identified in 10 cases. Further findings were pulmonary embolism (n  = 4), alveolar haemorrhage (n  = 3), and vasculitis (n  = 1). Predominantly shock attributed to the pathologies noted in other organ systems; signs of generalized thrombotic microangiopathy were identified in three patients and pulmonary thrombotic microangiopathy in five patients. Senile cardiac amyloidosis was diagnosed in six patients upon autopsy. One or more comorbidities (hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes mellitus) were reported in most patients. Additionally, an overall predominance of males and individuals with blood group A was observed (81% and 65%, respectively). In supplementary files, all relevant histological slides are linked as open‐source scans. Findings here suggest a lower threshold of tolerance for COVID‐19 among hypertensive, elderly, obese, male individuals with severe cardiovascular comorbidities as well as those with blood group A. This imparts a pathophysiological explanation for greater number of deaths among these individuals.