Rationing care in COVID-19: if we must do it, can we do better?

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a proposal for frailty to be used as a rationing criterion. This commentary suggests circumstances under which that is defensible in the face of lack of capacity to treat everyone, and as an alternative to age in stratifying risk. How best to stratify risk is likely to evolve and may include information about illness severity and dynamic measures. Current research must focus on mobilizing better, COVID-19-specific prognostic information, with a goal of best discriminating which lives are most and least likely to be saved should scarcity of resources dictate that not everyone can receive critical care.