In a blog for the BMJ's Journal of Medical Ethics, Udo Schüklenk argues that health care workers are under no obligation to treat COVID-19 patients if they are not given adequate equipment for safeguarding their own health. Udo writes: "There is no reason why doctors and nurses should be seen to be professionally obliged to risk their well-being today, because we chose governments that starved them of the necessary resources to do their job safely."
A column in the Globe & Mail reports on Udo's argument, and fully endorses it: "No health-care workers, including doctors, should knowingly risk their lives because they have not been provided with proper protective equipment. To be blunt, yes, someone might die because of their refusal to treat a patient in the absence of having proper gear."