Assumptions of maximal individualism in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: ethical aspects

Maximal individualism, which is currently a prevalent trend in the way many patients think, places high hopes in the achievements of biomedicine and assumes that everyone should always receive optimal medical care. Such an approach is in line with many normative and legal acts operating worldwide, including the Declaration of Human Rights. However, its feasibility and effectiveness in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic raises numerous ethical, social and economic dilemmas. The culture of prosperity and excess, characteristic of contemporary Western societies, makes it even more challenging to come to terms with this situation.