State officials often don’t want to take responsibility for activating crisis standards of care because doing so “implies that their planning to avoid crisis standards of care didn't work,” says Center Director Dr. Matthew Wynia.  "I understand why a governor would not want to acknowledge the reality of their situation. It feels bad. It looks bad. It is bad,” he said. “But failure to acknowledge the reality of a situation does not change the reality of the situation. And that’s unfortunately where some localities and states are at right now.”  In an “Ethics Talk” video podcast from the AMA, Wynia outlines the tough decisions administrators and physicians face when confronted with rapidly dwindling resources.  Listen to podcast>>