Doctors and healthcare workers at frontline of COVID 19 epidemic: Admiration, a pat on the back, and need for extreme caution

Abstract

Dr Li Wenliang (China), an ophthalmologist in Wuhan General Hospital, was a hero in more ways than one. He was first to warn about possible outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) like illness (later termed as Coronavirus Disease-2019 or Covid-19), faced opposition from authorities, and later died on February 7, 2020 after treating patients of Covid-19 admitted in intensive Care Unit (ICU). As I write this, 45 days later, Pandemic is raging, and other doctors have died or are critically sick [1]. But all is not bad news, heroic efforts of doctors in Wuhan have contained the epidemic, permitting many physicians to leave this virusravaged city for the first time, but not before posing for a picture in which they are all cheering in complete personal protection equipment