Fair allocation of scarce medical resources during COVID-19 pandemic: ethical considerations

Many are the uncertainties generated by the potential healthcare resource scarcity in the face of a relevant increase in the number of cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) of the Coronaviridae family. The virus emerged in China, in December 2019, spreading rapidly to other regions of the world, including Brazil. Since March 11, 2020, COVID-19 has been considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Viral pandemics tend to be a serious threat to the stability of health systems, imposing extraordinary and sustained demands on them, which can exceed the service capacity regarding all their available supplies and technologies, as well as trained human/professional resources. Pandemics pose the enormous challenge of balancing equality of all people and equity in distribution of risks and benefits among them. ^{( )}

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