Early reports from hospitals in the Italian city of Bergamo suggested that ventilatory support might need rationing and emergency ‘battlefield’ triage was a real possibility.1 In the UK, several professional bodies, including the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Physicians rapidly developed guidance for doctors should triage become a reality.2 The second issue was the acute shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). According to a report by Public Health England, after accounting for sex, age, deprivation and region, ‘people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death when compared with people of White British ethnicity. Not only is the imprisoning, assault and murder of protestors a violation of the human rights to free speech and free assembly, guaranteed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the targeting of medical professionals and interfering in their activities is an abuse of the principle of medical neutrality, enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention.8 Not only is this a violation of the rights of doctors and other colleagues, it is also detrimental to the healthcare of patients, diminishing their right to the highest standard of health which is guaranteed by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which was ratified by Myanmar in 2017. A piece has been written for the British Medical Journal to raise awareness,10 the BMA has written to the Foreign Secretary requesting that coordinated international action be explored to oppose the human rights abuses of medical professionals, and a joint statement of solidarity with several UK royal medical colleges and other organisations representative of medical professionals has been published, which has collated resources that may be of use to those from abroad looking to offer support in Myanmar and for healthcare professionals in Myanmar also.
Ethics briefing