🦠💭 Democracy, trust and the virus

This is a moment to be sanguine. Read this letter with that in mind. For readers outside of the UK, please note the parochial focus of this particular missive touches on many issues that might be relevant in your country. 

[T]he allocation criteria need to guarantee that those patients with the highest chance of therapeutic success will retain access to intensive care.

These are the new guidelines for the Italian College of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care, written an aeon ago on Monday when Italy had 40% fewer cases of coronavirus than as I type these words. (There has been an update reported by the Daily Telegraph, “This is how it is in a war.”)

As COVID19 continues its exponential growth in most countries, the strategies which country select will have a massive impact on the severity outcome of this pandemic. Ignoring science at the top of government is unacceptable. However, science must not equally be a shield under which leaders absolve themselves of their po…