COVID-19 may have eroded doctors’ belief that they are obligated to treat infectious patients

That seems concerning if confirmed! I guess, we take it for granted that a doctor will always see you.

"COVID-19 may have eroded doctors’ belief that they are obligated to treat infectious patients, concluded Duke University–led researchers who compared trends during various pandemics; COVID-19-related characteristics including vaccine refusal, PPE shortages, and abuse of staff by patients and their families may have contributed to the shift. CIDRAP"

"The unique circumstances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic altered a long-held convention that doctors provide care regardless of personal risk.

In a study assessing doctors’ tolerance for refusing care to COVID-19 patients, Duke Health researchers identified a growing acceptance to withhold care because of safety concerns. ..."

From the abstract:

"During pandemics, healthcare providers struggle with balancing obligations to self, family, and patients. While HIV/AIDS seemed to settle this issue, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rekindled debates regarding treatment refusal. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Complete, and Web of Science using terms including obligation, refusal, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, and pandemics. After duplicate removal and dual, independent screening, we analyzed 156 articles for quality, ethical position, reasons, and concepts. Diseases in our sample included HIV/AIDS (72.2%), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (10.2%), COVID-19 (10.2%), Ebola (7.0%), and influenza (7.0%). Most articles (81.9%, n = 128) indicated an obligation to treat. COVID-19 had the highest number of papers indicating ethical acceptability of refusal (60%, P < .001), while HIV had the least (13.3%, P = .026). Several reason domains were significantly different during COVID-19, including unreasonable risks to self/family (26.7%, P < .001) and labor rights/workers' protection (40%, P < .001). A surge in ethics literature during COVID-19 has advocated for permissibility of treatment refusal. Balancing healthcare provision with workforce protection is crucial in effectively responding to a global pandemic."

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COVID may have eroded doctors' belief that they are obligated to treat infectious patients

COVID-19 pandemic alters view that doctors are obligated to provide care Previous infectious disease outbreaks such as HIV and SARS showed little impact on how doctors approached their obligation to treat patients

The Ethical Obligation to Treat Infectious Patients: A Systematic Review of Reasons (open access)