As Boris Johnson was being treated in intensive care, Dominic Raab expressed his confidence that the Prime Minister would defeat Covid-19 and return to work because ‘he is a fighter.’ The press howled in opposition to these hopeful words. Things culminated in BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, disdainfully telling viewers: ‘You do not survive the illness through fortitude or strength of character, whatever the Prime Minister’s colleagues will tell us’. The video clip achieved its intended virality, and was picked up by cable networks around the world. But we need to set the record straight.
She’s wrong. Medically wrong. Dangerously wrong. As a critical care physician, I can say from both clinical experience and from scientific literature, courage in illness matters. It matters for survival.
In ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ the Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, describes a crystallised behaviour pattern among concentration camp inmates who lost the will to live:
‘Something typical occurred: they took out a cigarette from deep down in a pocket where they had hidden it and started smoking.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in