Журнал. World association for medical law. The COVID-19 pandemic. Volume 39 2

89 World Association for Medical Law Medicine and Law EDITORIAL World Association for Medical Law THE COVID PANDEMIC - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY Roy G Beran (1,2,3,) MBBS, MD, FRACP, FRACGP, Grad. Dip. Tertiary Ed., Grad. Dip. Further Ed., FAFPHM, FACLM, FRCP, FAAN, FACBS, B Leg. S, MHL and FFFLM (Hon) Affiliations: 1. University of New South Wales, Australia 2. Griffith University, Queensland, Australia 3. Sechenov, First State University of Moscow, Russia INTRODUCTION COVID-19 has changed the way we do business. It is not just on a personal 1-on-1 basis, but it has impacted families, nations and international interactions. The World Association for Medical Law (WAML) usually holds its annual World Congress on Medical Law (WCML) at predetermined locations, which attract experts in health law, legal medicine, bioethics, to congregate in that city, to share ideas, generate contacts, foster research, encourage younger scholars and to cross-pollenate concepts that may later germinate into international collaboration. The year 2020 has seen the COVID Pandemic cause postponement of the summer Olympics but, much more importantly, it has also forced the WAML to cancel its 2020 WCML, in Toronto, Canada, delay elections of WAML office bearers and cause consternation for the editor- in-chief of the WAML sponsored journal, Medicine and Law . The preparation for this issue of the Journal has proven to be a demanding process, causing loss of sleep. Acknowledging that the June issue of Medicine and Law could not proceed, along its normal processing lines, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, it was decided to dedicate this issue of the Journal to the Pandemic. The last few years have seen the June issue of the Journal be devoted to publishing a limited number of papers, which were complemented by the publication of all the accepted abstracts for the August WCML. Even though there are already accepted abstracts for the Toronto WCML, it appears futile to publish these, in the absence of there being a forum in which they would be presented. Should they be retained until next year’s WCML, in Med Law (2020) 39:2:89-94