Years ago I was scheduled for a minor day surgery.During the questionaire I revealed I had just gotten over a cold with cough.It was all stop and had to meet with the anesthesiologist who had a listen to my lungs with a view to possibly cancelling my surgery.I asked him why.His answer was...it's too dangerous to ventilate you for surgery if you have any amount of conjestion in your lungs.It could cause pneumonia and potential damage.
So I immediately thought something was wrong when that became their go to treatment for conjested lungs.I recently read an article someone had posted, that stated that many of covid deaths were pneumonia deaths which confirmed my initial thoughts in 2020.