Who gets the last bed? Ethics criteria for scarce resource allocation in the era of COVID-19

摘要

The SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic has severely tested the health systems of many countries, including in the rich West, creating for the first time since the “Spanish” flu epidemic (1918- 1920) a material and serious condition of scarcity of life-saving health resources. In particular, areas at the epicenter of the pandemic such as Lombardy in northern Italy, despite the extraordinary effort mobilized – unique in the history of Western health systems - experienced a dramatic disparity between the need for care and the availability of adequate resources.