When I began this blog I said I wanted to go behind the headlines and present first-hand, informed global insights into the pandemic. Many perceptive primary sources have indeed been referred to on this site. But I think today’s eye-witness contribution is one of the most moving and authoritative yet.
I want to highlight this remarkable piece of writing by Dr Rachel Clarke. She is a palliative care doctor, whose latest book Dear Life revealed her humane approach to medicine.
Although she is British, Dr Clarke’s insights into our responses to this pandemic are relevant to everyone in the world.
Her main emphasis is on urging us to keep the focus on the individual patients hit by this disease. In her article today she presents this withering rebuke to governments, policy-makers and experts:
“The true metric of success in a pandemic is simple, the overall number of deaths prevented.
“The point of our response to coronavirus is not to flatten curves, ramp up headlines, or invent mathematically nonsense equations: it is the prevention of unnecessary dying.”
Dr Clarke’s background is as a current affairs journalist but I hope her observations as a doctor will challenge us to think way above our normal level of political discourse and allegiances.
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