Healthcare Workers - Heroes and Villains in Covid-19 Pandemic. The Ethical Communication
Healthcare Workers - Heroes and Villains in Covid-19 Pandemic. The Ethical Communication

Summary/Abstract: Periods of social and health crises require more than ever more attention toprofessional ethics, both for health practitioners and communicators. Beyond eachprofession's specific ethics, today, the fields are interdependent, with a transfer between thetwo professions. As a consequence of the transfer, ethical questions arise, some behavioursand statements are placed at their limit in both cases. This interpenetration of roles, assumedin a professional or private capacity, is augmented in social networks, permissive for a widerange of narrative manifestations. The article takes into account the narratives agglutinatedaround the concepts that have polarized Romania's public discourse since the officialdeclaration of the pandemic, of "doctor-hero" and "doctor-villain." The narratives identifiedin the social networks are inventoried from the perspective of the situation on this scale of thesocial emotion, the information it reveals to the public, and then analysed from theprofessional, ethical angle. The findings set the ground for preliminary analysis, withoutclaiming to be exhaustive, of how the medical profession is perceived ethically in thepandemic context. A complex approach to the topic can suggest answers to questions such as- How much does the doctor's social media activity contribute to informing and educating thepublic? Is this activity desirable or even recommended for medical staff? Is it possible todelimit the role of a physician when expressing opinions in public space? The effect of thiseffervescence in communication, corroborated with the total democratization of the digitalspace, with non-discriminatory access for any communicator, is complex. The social networkhas the potential of a virtual bullying space, artificially fed. In this context, we could furtherexplore by coding (positive-negative) how the pandemic narrative defines and redefines themedical profession and its most visible exponent - the doctor, and its public manifestationsimultaneously positions him as a "hero" and "villain"Periods of social and health crises require more than ever more attention to professional ethics, both for health practitioners and communicators. Beyond each profession's specific ethics, today, the fields are interdependent, with a transfer between the two professions. As a consequence of the transfer, ethical questions arise, some behaviours and statements are placed at their limit in both cases. This interpenetration of roles, assumed in a professional or private capacity, is augmented in social networks, permissive for a wide range of narrative manifestations. The article takes into account the narratives agglutinated around the concepts that have polarized Romania's public discourse since the official declaration of the pandemic, of "doctor-hero" and "doctor-villain." The narratives identified in the social networks are inventoried from the perspective of the situation on this scale of the social emotion, the information it reveals to the public, and then analysed from the professional, ethical angle. The findings set the ground for preliminary analysis, without claiming to be exhaustive, of how the medical profession is perceived ethically in the pandemic context. A complex approach to the topic can suggest answers to questions such as - How much does the doctor's social media activity contribute to informing and educating the public? Is this activity desirable or even recommended for medical staff? Is it possible to delimit the role of a physician when expressing opinions in public space? The effect of this effervescence in communication, corroborated with the total democratization of the digital space, with non-discriminatory access for any communicator, is complex. The social network has the potential of a virtual bullying space, artificially fed. In this context, we could further explore by coding (positive-negative) how the pandemic narrative defines and redefines the medical profession and its most visible exponent - the doctor, and its public manifestation simultaneously positions him as a "hero" and "villain".

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