The Ethical Ethos of Medicine & The Power to Heal
It is time to put patients—and all the citizens of the world—first.
In March, 2020 during the very first Zoom meeting of what would soon become the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), Dr. Paul Marik, the world’s second most highly published Critical Care physician said simply, “People are dying unnecessarily. We can—and must— treat them and save them.”
It was at once a declaration of the ability of the accomplished physician/scholars gathered to work together quickly address a dire humanitarian imperative; and to do so because it was what they were ethically called to do as physicians. Doing nothing—when they knew people could be saved—meant doing harm. The very antithesis of the venerable Hippocratic Oath.
Ethics in medicine means relentless adherence to the highest principles of care, conscience, and capability.
Add it must start with patients.
PATIENTS FIRST.
Patients First was THE reason why attendees at the inaugural FLCCC medical education conference came to Orlando, Florida in October, 2022. Their patients. Here it was safe—even strongly encouraged—to ask hard questions and to discuss/debate ongoing treatment modalities using repurposed drugs. It was safe to deliberate the horrifically damning vaccine-injury data coming out of the CDC’s VAERS website—data not spoken of (i.e. silenced/censored) by major media. Data-driven dialogues among health practitioners — like the academic conversations held at the conference — fuels the ire of the authors and defenders of official ‘COVID-speak.’ Outside the conference room doors, in major media and throughout official public health channels, the conference and all things FLCCC have always been positioned as little more than “fringe”— with “dangerous” ways of thinking and talking about academic, medical and scientific COVID disease issues. To the censors, that made the FLCCC worthy only of public mockery and condemnation—however baseless, defamatory, potentially deadly or misleading their missives were.
Yet at the conference, in a room infused with a shared ethical ethos, it was safe to exhale. In the conference “family” room, keynote speakers ascended the stage with hearts full of compassion and heads full of critical knowledge to impart about the treatment and understanding of a novel disease that brought the world to its knees. Discussion and debate following each presentation was heartily welcomed.
And so they asked questions and discussed and debated.
What were the safest and best therapies for their COVID patients dealing with ever-evolving variants?
What was best for their Long COVID patients?
What was best for their vaccine-injured patients?
How could they gather the latest global data on patients with Long COVID?
How could they gather the latest global data on patients with vaccine injuries?
What is spike protein and how has it caused these growing COVID-related health crises?
How could they keep from facing harsh disciplinary actions for failure to adhere to “official” treatment guidance?
They knew they had come to an inviolable place to find answers and support—free of ridicule or disdain. It was the fullness of being amongst a family that had unknowingly bonded on what was once a lonely, mine-laced battlefield.
Patients first.
From the start, the FLCCC embraced and nourished an Ethical Ethos of Medicine that grew and rooted itself in the welfare of humanity. Though this ethical ethos has never been codified per se, FLCCC physicians, our clinical advisors, alliance associates, staff, volunteers, patients, families, supporters, colleagues who have locked arms to defend the Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm’—and legions of others around the world— can delineate a similar narration of our shared ethical ethos as that which follows.
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The importance of our shared Ethical Ethos of Medicine and its core tenets cannot be overstated. In its embrace, one and all are welcome.
It is time to heal.
It is time to open our arms — one to another— to forge a new way forward—together.
It is time to open our eyes and clearly assess immediate global health challenges caused by COVID-19; and respond with the highest degree of medical integrity to the ever-changing healthcare landscape it has spawned—together.
It is time to open our minds—to considering all ideas and innovations utilizing best practices in the analysis of medical evidence, clinical observations and treatment therapies—from wherever in the world rigorous data is generated—together.
It is time to open our hearts to loudly proclaim that our priority must always be our patients—not power or profits.
It is time to put patients—and all the citizens of the world—first.
