Uncertainty and COVID-19: how are we to respond?

Abstract

As if writing prophetically about the global Covid-19 pandemic, in 1984 Eddy suggested, “Uncertainty creeps into medical practice through every pore. Whether a physician is defining a disease, making a diagnosis, selecting a procedure, observing outcomes, assessing probabilities, assigning preferences, or putting it all together, he (or she) is walking on very slippery terrain” 1. Covid-19 has rapidly become a disease associated with unbridled uncertainty with its aetiology and management, for the healthcare systems and health professionals who provide care, and among its ultimate victims, patients and their families.