Patient Contribution to the Development and Safe Use of Medicines During the Covid-19 Pandemic
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Patient Contribution to the Development and Safe Use of Medicines During the Covid‑19 Pandemic Peter J. Pitts1 · François Houÿez2 Received: 18 September 2020 / Accepted: 16 October 2020 © The Drug Information Association, Inc 2020
Abstract COVID-19 has catapulted the issue of the patient voice in healthcare and healthcare policy to the front of the global agenda. The world population has been affected with varying government-required risk mitigation measures including social distancing, national, regional and local “lock down” quarantines, and the wearing of masks along with diligent handwashing. Clearly, not all of these measures are possible in every country due to a lack of resources and healthcare infrastructure, and it will surely be patients who will suffer the most as a result. This issue must be dealt with responsibly on the local level by all countries and patients cooperating with and supporting overwhelmed healthcare systems and aiding the planned implementation of mitigation measures. If not, pockets of SARS-CoV-2 will remain in these regions with continuous suffering of their populations. This is critical as we still do not fully understand the clinical, pathological and epidemiological attributes of SARS-CoV-2; the longer it stays embedded and circulating, the possibility of mutation into a deadlier virus remains along with further waves of epidemics. The threat of another infectious disease pandemic has loomed over the world since the 1918 influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus (“Spanish flu).1 The brief and limited outbreaks related to coronaviruses,2 SARS and MERS, were preludes to the future, which has now arrived with a novel coronavirus that has impacted every country in the world. This new pandemic coronavirus, designated as SARSCoV-2 (“COVID-19”), has catapulted the issue of the patient voice in healthcare and healthcare policy to the front of the global agenda. In this context, we are all patients or potential patients, which includes all members of the public, healthcare professionals, patients with pre-existing conditions and so forth, and we will use the term “patient” to designate this.” The world population has been affected with varying
government-required risk mitigation measures including social distancing, national, regional and local “lockdown” quarantines,3 and the wearing of masks along with diligent handwashing. Clearly, not all of these measures are possible in every country due to a lack of resources and healthcare infrastructure, and it will surely be patients who will suffer the most as a result. This issue must be dealt with responsibly on the local level by all countries and patients cooperating with and supporting overwhelmed healthcare systems and aiding the planned implementation of mitigation measures. If not, pockets of SARS-CoV-2 will remain in these regions with continuous suffering of their populations.4 This is critical as we still do not fully understand the clinical, pathological and epidemiological attributes of SARS-Co
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