"This is, therefore, the moment to act with all the strength. As if it were D-Day, when we have to play everything to minimize the enemy's strength". This is the warning of those who are at the forefront of the trenches of an unequal war, whose enemy is unknown.

The request is clear and direct. At the moment when we have 169 confirmed cases of covid-19 infection, 12 patients in intensive care and the forecast to reach a peak within two to three weeks, a sensible appeal is made to the Portuguese government to enact mandatory quarantine and state of health emergency. "This is the time to show courage and do what you have to do."

What we are experiencing is a war over the choice of the wounded that we are going to leave in the field to die without help, because in the war the brave are saved or those who are just luckier. Is this what a civilized country does to its own? It's time.

The full article by Fausto J. Pinto, Dean of FMUL and President of the Council of Portuguese Medical Schools, to the portuguese newspaper Público, to read here.