Covid-19 has captured global attention, with new scientific and ethical challenges arising every day along with mounting mortality rates. An editorial in this issue examines the Indian health system’s pandemic readiness. We also have a new section on the pandemic, where authors bring up urgent ethical issues. This section will remain for as long as IJME continues to receive content focusing on the pandemic. This issue contains comments on the consequences of draconian policies, age-based rationing, untested prophylactics, and management of NCDs and alcohol withdrawal in the pandemic period. More perspectives appear in several letters, and even in poetry.

We mourn the huge loss of life worldwide, including that of the many healthcare and sanitary workers who are struggling to save lives; and we protest the failure of governments to provide them with protective equipment and protection from stigma; and to safeguard vulnerable communities from hate and violence.

This issue also has articles focusing on whether unequal global partnerships in healthcare can work, whether doctors have a duty to advise on lifestyle changes for chronic conditions, and the medical industry’s perennial efforts to influence doctors and patient groups. Others explore the difficulties of treating pregnant women with severe mental illness, the ethics of imposing anti-testosterone treatment on sportspersons with differences in sex development, and on doctors’ participation in penal amputation.

Cover credit: “Covid-19” in the Warli tradition, courtesy of Anil Vangad, prize-winning artist’

Thank You, Reviewers!

We are grateful to our reviewers for the hard work they put into evaluating and improving submissions. Besides our internal reviewers, we thank the following external reviewers for their support during the year 2019-20:

Aamir Jafarey, Aasim Ahmad, Abha Saxena, Adithya Pradyumna, Alok Sarin, Angus Dawson, Anindita Majumdar, Anjali Nair, Anoop Thekkuveetil, Anurag Bhargava, Arun Bhatt,, Barbara Secker, Bevin Vijayan, Bushra Shirazi, Carolin Elizabeth George, Chinu Srinivasan, David Healy, Denny John, Dheeraj Kattula, Dhvani Mehta, Emdad Ul Haque ATM, Gajanan Phutke, Gayathri Prabhu, George Thomas, Irfan Engineer, Jagriti Gangopadhyay, Jaya Sagade, Jennifer Gibson, Jing-Bao Nie, Jissa VT, Joe Varghese, Johnson Pradeep, Ketaki Chowkhani, Lars Breimer, Leena Lourduswamy, Leena V Gangolli, Lopa Mehta, Malu Mohan, Manickam Ponnaiah, Manjulika Vaz, Margaret Whitstock, Mark Wilson, Mario Vaz, Meghan Doherty, Monica Sakhrani, Monty Khajanchi, Nandini Kumar,Naveen Kumar, Navjeevan Singh, Nazli Hossain, Nithya Gogtay, Nobhojit Roy, Prabir Chatterjee, Pravin Bolshete, Priya Satalkar, Priyadarshini C, RR Kishore, Rakhal Gaitonde, Rakesh PS, Raman Kutty, Ramani Atkuri, Ravi Prasad Varma, Ravi Vaswani, Richard A Cash, Roshini Alexander, Sandeep Bawdekar, Sangeeta Rege,Sanjay Nagral, Sankar Giri, Saumil Dholakia,Sara Bergstresser, Satendra Singh, Sayori Ghoshal, Shaibya Saldanha, Sharmila Jalgaonkar, Shilpa Phadke, Sophia Modi, Soumitra Pathare, Srinivas DK, Subhasri B, Suchitra Dalvi, Sudarshini Subramaniam, Sudarshan Kottai, Sujit Chandy, Sunil Nandraj, Sunu Thomas, Supriya Subramani, Swarnalakshmi Singaravelu, Sylvia Karpagam, Udaya Mishra, Upreet Dhaliwal, Usha Raman, Varalakshmi Elango,Vikram Patel, Vipin Vashishtha, Vivek Divan, Vrinda Marwah, Yogesh Jain,