COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspective on Medical Professionalism

Abstract

COVID-19 has disrupted the life of millions with frontline healthcare workers being at the greatest brunt of this pandemic. The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has crippled India enormously. It caught the entire country unprepared with daily numbers and deaths soaring record high. In this perilous predicament, doctors and nurses have tried their hardest to deliver the best possible treatment to those affected with the disease. In the absence of any effective medication and a highly infectious behavior of the virus, many health workers got infected and even lost their precious lives. Going by the numbers given by the Indian Medical Association, more than 500 doctors have lost their lives to this deadly virus in the second wave and more than 700 during the first wave.[1] Many doctors and other health professionals have faced mental stress and fear of passing on the disease to family members while going back home from duties. However, this was a testing time for all of us as we were fighting against an unknown enemy while doing the sacred duty in the service of society. Doctors and nurses are frontline warriors in this struggle; hence, some casualties were expected. Our physician friends who lost their lives in this struggle will be remembered for their sacrifices.