Key words for 2020: Pandemic, emergency, anomie

Abstract

Dear Editor, In 2020, global society was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has confronted everyone with an unusual, unknown situation, an unprecedented humanitarian emergency. The sudden outbreak has put health systems under enormous pressure and has caused major organisational problems, operational uncertainties and ethical conflicts. In particular, health workers had to deal with the emergency in both their personal and their working lives. While we wanted and had to treat our patients, we risked and feared getting infected too. (...)