During a pandemic, narrowing ethics into silos such as clinical and public health does not help the cause of ethics, which often gets neglected in desperate times. Our response to a recently published article in this journal, tries to take this discussion forward. Keeping medical ethics at the centre of our response to the Covid-19 pandemic would benefit healthcare systems at all levels. This would also help us be prepared for future pandemics. Strengthening healthcare systems would also provide an opportunity to improve non-Covid care.