A few months ago, a new virus emerged in the province of Wuhan in China and spread at a pandemic dimension to reach, at the present date (third week of July 2020), more than 14 million people and killing more than 600 000 people in over 210 countries of all continents. The world has experienced other pandemics and in our collective memory remains the ghost of the Spanish flu which extended the devastation caused by the Great War in a deadlier fashion than the present situation, affecting 500 million people (1/3 of the world wide population of that time), the estimate being of at least 50 million mortal victims. In the USA alone, 650 000 deaths were recorded. To emphasize the dimension of the horrific effect of the Spanish flu, the dead in the Great War were 9 million among the military and 7 million among civilians.

In these first two decades of the twenty first century, the world has known other epidemics, namely: SARS, MERS, Ebola, swine influenza (H1N1), Avian influenza (H5N1). Such a considerable number of epidemics in such a short period of time is certainly a sign that we should rethink the human position in the global ecosystem.The urgency in the control of pandemics necessarily involves the finding of cures and the development of vaccines. The greatest challenge lays in the capacity to restrain the pandemic during the absence of suitable therapeutics or efficient vaccination.

Healthcare systems, confronted with the cataclysm, have focused initially in finding ways to respond to those infected with SARS CoV-2, thus suspending the non-urgent clinical activity and reinforcing, by testing the limits of what is possible, structures at all levels, creating corridors and protected spaces. In Europe, mostly in Spain and Italy, we have witnessed an absolute collapse of health services as complete chaos settled. Campaign hospitals were installed and the care provided to the patients was not the desired one but that which was possible given the circumstances.

The political decisions will only be legitimate if the ethical principles are respected and well established in times of pandemic. Firstly, there is the principle of necessity. Secondly, there is the principle of precaution which aims to ensure that there will not be unnecessary risks for public health. Thirdly, we have the principle of proportionality in the sense that legislative excesses are to be avoided. Fourthly, the principle of transparency according to which all the measures must be accompanied by clear and effective communication. The fifth principle is that of solidarity which aims to ensure cooperation between all social actors so that there is the protection of those who are most vulnerable. The last principle is that of subsidiarity

The citizens also have the duty to comply with the recommendations from the health care authorities to minimize contagion risks. I have been a medical doctor for 30 years and this pandemic has strengthened in me the conscious acknowledgement of the privilege it is to be in a profession enabling the aid of others. Many people from other professions have been reaching out to me because they want to collaborate and to somehow contribute to the betterment of these hard times we face. It is my hope that the reinforcement of solidarity, humanism and the respect for the environment will be our heritage from the pandemic once it finds closure.