[Clinical experience and critical issues.]

Bergamo is a rich and populous city of northern Italy and one of the epicentres of the worldwide pandemic CoViD-19. Despite the generosity of health workers, we are undergoing a severe humanitarian crisis that is stressing every aspect of daily life. From outside it is very hard to understand, because houses are closed for lockdown and are not destroyed as they would be in an earthquake. An outbreak is not "only" a sudden mass lethal incident, like a natural disaster, neither "only" a disease, to be treated by doctors, but a social phenomenon too. Historical and social elements are key factors for development (for example, intensive promiscuity between animals and humans) and spread of an epidemic (for example, health workers and ambulance rapidly become vector of the virus). Can medical responsibility change in times of pandemic? My answer, as anaesthetist and intensive care physician from Bergamo, is yes. When the global medical community is called on to face a pandemic of unprecedented scale, with little scientific evidence and "crazy numbers" describing the situation, honest and forthcoming advocacy is an ethical duty. Aim of this narrative report is to share a view point about the dilemma of moral responsibility.