I am not writing a didactic column but definitely an editorial that is disparate. The four pillars of medical ethics namely beneficence, non-malfeasance, respect for person and justices do apply in pandemic with justice supervening all. The Corona virus, COVID 19 pandemic has affected entire world and shaken the health care delivery system globally. The accepted norms of health care delivery have been transformed to ‘necessity’. It has affected all sectors of society across geopolitical boundaries virtually every individual being at risk irrespective of social economic status, ethnic origin and gender. The health care system is stretched beyond capacities and unless they are selectively protected they face threat of disproportionate suffering with enervation due to erosion of clinical care capacity. We all need to ensure that we don’t denigrate the ethical principles of medicine. In the phases of pandemic the health care system passes through three phases: an initial preparatory phase, acute stage and the later crisis stage. In preparatory stage the health care force is intact and facilities like beds, equipment’s (PPE, Ventilator etc.) are available whereas in acute stage the work force is in limited capacity although functional through strategic planning, this is later followed by crisis phase where the health care delivery system becomes overwhelmed and will have sparse capacity. Unfortunately, the current Corona crisis is not ephemeral and there is need for equanimity among health care professionals.

References

Citation

Citation: Rateesh Sareen. “Ethics and Justice in Corona Pandemic: A Dark Cloud with Silver Lining". Acta Scientific Cancer Biology 4.9 (2020): 01-02.

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Copyright: © 2020 Rateesh Sareen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.