The EP duty to promote the public health is part of the ACEP Code of Ethics. The 10th Principle of Ethics for Emergency Physicians states that EPs shall “support societal efforts to improve public health and safety.” This would include macro-level EP duties to the overall community as well as a duty as citizens to submit to public health authorities and the extant laws of the land. In some cases, this includes the duty to accept quarantine and to help quarantine others at risk.

Similarly, EPs are not above public health reporting laws. Certain communicable diseases (like hemorrhagic fevers) must be reported to public health authorities under the law. While discrimination must be eschewed, responsible reporting must be encouraged.

EPs also have micro-level duties to individual patients. As with the early days of the HIV epidemic, ACEP policy underlines that EPs care for all patients; this is not a selective duty. The second Principle of Ethics for Emergency Physicians states: “EPs shall respond promptly and expertly, without prejudice or partiality.” The first and most important principle in the ACEP Code of Ethics enjoins EPs to “embrace patient welfare as their primary professional responsibility.” Opt-out polices or calling in “sick” on the basis of contagion would be unethical as we owe a duty to every patient, including those with EVD.

Indeed, EPs who live out these principles and respond with courage to Ebola and similar public health crises must ultimately be honored as heroes, not vilified as vectors.