Point to Ponder: Pandemic

and fleeing doctors.

1. It will come as a nasty surprise to learn from a survey that nearly two(2) in seven(7) doctors felt they "should not be looking after" patients in a bird flu pandemic. Almost as many of those responding to a 2006 survey undertaken by doctors from the National University of Singapore (NUS) considered the risk "unacceptable".

Almost one in eight said they "might look for another job because of the risk". Countering any public disapproval of the attitudes, the survey results just published also revealed a vast majority (82.5 per cent) of the respondents accepted the risks as part of their job, despite the fear of infection expressed by nearly 90 per cent of them. Will a flu pandemic claim doctors' ethics among its first victims, along with the many lives?

2.