key: cord-0942539-clb29706
authors: Papadakis, Marios
title: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Faith healing or science? An old-time problem
date: 2021-05-03
journal: Infection control and hospital epidemiology
DOI: 10.1017/ice.2021.198
sha: 019db02304500260c15b2ce60767e3f740bc2d0c
doc_id: 942539
cord_uid: clb29706

nan

"Most people do not praise the successes of medical science, and they often attribute them to the gods. But if nature is recalcitrant and weakens the patient, then they blame the physician and pass over the divine. I think that medical science is allotted more reproach than honor. And, in fact, I myself have not reached the goal of medicine, though I am now old. And indeed, neither did its founder, Asclepius, but he too, was inconsistent in many things, as books of those who recorded it have conveyed to us." 1 Similarly, nowadays many people are willing to attribute to supernatural intervention any interference with nature, especially when divine involvement has been requested. The phenomenon has its origin in the fact that most physicians encounter or have encountered outcomes they cannot explain using natural criteria and terms such as spontaneous remissions of incurable malignancies. Although scientific miracles are not clearly defined, most physicians do believe that miracles occur today and that religion is a reliable and necessary guide to life. 2 However, we should not forget that healthcare professionals risk their own health helping the humanity fight this invisible enemy. Therefore, gratitude is the best attitude.

Hippocrates: Pseudepigraphic Writings

Responding to patient beliefs in miracles

Acknowledgments.Financial support. No financial support was provided relevant to this article.

All authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.