USA has been in the top list of countries which has a bad impact over the economic condition of the country due to this pandemic situation. A lot of people have already lost their lives and still the counting is rising daily. Currently it was found that there are almost 2,000 deaths happening in the country. I have faced personal ethical dilemma during this pandemic situation. There was a lot of situation when we were asked to stay at home and step out only when it is an emergency or required. Still I went out s I was facing ethical dilemma issues.
In our neighbourhood there is a doctor who is currently working in a Covid-19 hospital. I faced ethical dilemma between asking her the situation and checking if she requires any help with her household chores, and ignoring and avoiding her due to the fear of getting contaminated. We have heard from the news that patient’s number in the ICU has been increasing constantly which has ultimately increased the concern related with the withdrawal of life support decisions, and surrounding triage ((Usatoday.com 2020). One of our relative is also a doctor in a Covid-19 hospital and the hospital is near to our locality. Some days the doctors has to stay near to their job place because they have to work late at night and report early in the morning the very next day. It was not possible for our relative to travel to his house late at night and then reach hospital early. He asked if he can stay in our house. I faced personal dilemma here because we allowed him for two days but due to the fear of containment, we asked him not to come after hospital works. I felt bad because choosing to not allowing him stay but this personal dilemma was genuine as I was concerned about our health. I suppose this personal dilemma is felt by a lot of people in our society because this situation is worse than expected.
The visits by patient’s families and also quality of the end-of-life support can also be counted into the ethical dilemma. It can be stated that our personal ethical dilemmas have actually made situation worse for the caregivers. The main ethical dilemma in the COVID-19 situation was related with the ICU caregivers and they have confronted during this pandemic. It is because the support and help the ICU caregivers requires from us, we are not providing it to the due to our fear. Inside the country many places have arranged ICU beds for the Covid-19 patients in a short period of time (Business-standard.com 2020) and the caregivers have provided their service without any personal dilemma. This personal ethical dilemma of ours has been one of the biggest dilemma situations for this country in this year and making the situation more difficult for the caregivers.
References:
Usatoday.com, 2020. [online] Usatoday.com. Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/12/covid-news-california-1-m-cases-ticketmaster-ohio-masks/6255240002/ [Accessed 12 November 2020].
Business-standard.com, 2020. Coronavirus Vaccine Update: Pfizer Vaccine By Dec; Moderna Data By Nov-End. [online] Business-standard.com. Available at: https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/coronavirus-vaccine-update-india-us-covid-vaccine-progress-russia-uk-pfizer-know-latest-update-on-corona-treatment-by-oxford-moderna-120111200155_1.html [Accessed 12 November 2020].
