• Salvatore Mangione and Stephen G Post.
• Associate Professor of Medicine, Director Humanities Track and History of Medicine Series, Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Hamilton Building, 1001 Locust Street, Suite 309c, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. Electronic address: Salvatore.Mangione@Jefferson.edu.
• Am. J. Med. Sci. 2021 Feb 1; 361 (2): 146-150.

AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic struck physicians at a time of unprecedented dissatisfaction and burnout, providing a stress test whose lessons might guide structural changes in healthcare. While selflessly rescuing patients from death, many doctors were exposed to unacceptable risk, with little protection for themselves, and, by extension, for their families and patients. This essay examines the basis and limits of duty to treat in a time of crisis and explores how these experiences could leave doctors morally stressed and even compromised. We question whether a physician-patient relationship that treats patients' safety and well-being as separate from their doctors' personal and professional values, needs, and dignity is the best way to deliver care. Such questions predated coronavirus but were brought to the forefront because of the epidemic. As physicians process their experiences, we hope to begin a deeper moral and social conversation that might help us be better prepared for future crises.Copyright © 2020 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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