Occurrence of the COVID-19 Pandemic was totally unexpected, and governments of all countries were surprised. Pandemics always raises the feel­ing of fear and health policy is interested in such phenomena. In this specific case it was fully justified as COVID-19 was new and unknown. Every­where the populations found themselves in psychological position presented years ago by Ulrich Beck in book Risk Society. Influencing and shaping society’s emotions – both feelings of safety and feelings of fear had a fundamental importance for social behaviour.

In time when first information about COVID-19 came from China and Poland was still free from any infection, the government’s representatives tried to play down the seriousness of the virus and equated the COVID-19 to a seasonal flu. At that time, it could have been justified as an attempt to avoid panic. But with the first episodes of infections the tone of messages essentially changed, and the virus was presented as a lethal danger. Such a con­text was applied as a direct rationalization of general lockdown and a broad catalogue of restrictions in social contacts.

However, when The Presidential Election was approaching (with the act of balloting demanding presence of people in a polling station), the content of messages presented to the public changed again. In the new version the virus itself was shown as rather innocent and the pandemic was contained and under control. In this way all voters, including elderly people, were encouraged to take part in the election.

If lessons are to be drawn from the past, we might conclude that in time of a pandemic, the instrumental management of social emotions and feel­ings is not always the best way of communicating with the general public.

A nurse as well as a midwife belong to independent professions which inherently involve performing numerous tasks and functions in various areas and in various positions, which simultaneously requires from these professions respecting the rules of law. In health-threatening conditions, for example during a pandemic, especially when all social groups are exposed to danger and when danger arises unexpectedly, nurses become an im­portant link in the process of providing health security to everybody who needs it. In such situations nurses are obliged to perform their professional duties as well as possible and, at the same time, they have to tackle numerous family responsibilities. No matter if they take direct care of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus or those possibly suffering from COVID-19, work as university lecturers teaching prospective nurses or hold mana­gerial positions, they always face professional difficulties and dilemmas or even real dangers. Although the challenges which nurses face during the pandemic tend to change week by week, nurses, with time, learn to respond to them for the sake of other people’s welfare.

In the absence of effective drugs that could be used in the treatment of infection caused by SARS-CoV-2, behavioral methods of preventing infection have become important in counteracting the epidemic, including wearing protective masks. A historical overview of the epidemic and the introduc­tion of the mask order allows an epidemic to be better understood not only as a biological event, but also as a social process. Many countries have enforced the wearing of masks in public despite conflicting opinions about whether their use could prevent transmission of the coronavirus from one person to another. In Poland, the content of the official message on the effectiveness of wearing masks was changing, ultimately introducing the obligation to cover the mouth and nose with masks or an element of clothing in generally accessible places.

The medical rehabilitation system in Poland includes various rehabilitation services, financed by various institutions, including the NFZ, ZUS, KRUS, PFRON and local governments. The aim of the study is to identify the most important problems and limitations of this system, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The most important issues to be solved and proposed reforms of the medical rehabilitation system in Poland presented in recent years were identified. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this system, providing rehabilitation services and problems related to the im­plementation of further legal regulations in the first months of the pandemic were discussed. One of the most important recommended changes is the implementation of the comprehensive care model and the activities aimed at coordinating various elements and levels of rehabilitation.

The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to great changes in the functioning of modern societies, not just in the medical dimension. The percep­tion of the health care system and its employees has also changed.

The aim of the article is to analyze the approach of public authorities to combat the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and Poland. The research material was information available on the website of the European Observatory of Health Systems and Policies (EOHSP) in a special section dedicated to issues related to the prevention of coronavirus pandemic (https://www.covid19healthsystem.org/mainpage.aspx).

The obtained results indicate that the crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced all countries to undertake diversified, non-standard efforts, i.e. the use of their own pharmaceutical sector for the production of disinfectants or acceleration of obtaining licenses by medical practition­ers. In terms of financing one of activity was generation of additional funds for healthcare systems that were financially heavily burdened in the pandemic era.

With more than 6.5 million known cases and nearly 195,000 deaths as of 9 September 2020, the United States has been gravely affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The nation’s response can only be described as inconsistent and ineffective. The role of the once preeminent US Centers for Disease Control has been undercut. The extent of infection and death can be attributed to the failure of many Americans to wear masks and maintain physical distance, appropriate behaviors which the nation’s political leadership has advocated to some degree but failed to adopt in practice.