Notes on ethical dilemmas in the coronavirus pandemic

Abstract

By a systematic-critical literature review, prioritizing the dialectic method of exposing both sides of the problem, trying for a possible synthesis, we will analyze some publications that portray the theme of the pandemic that the world is facing in this second decade of the twentieth century, seeking, first, to present an overview of some of the great health catastrophes that have marked human history. Then, we will try to present epidemiological characteristics of the COVID-19 virus, and, finally, we will critically discuss how the Brazilian civil society and the political-institutional elites are facing this catastrophe, bringing to light some of the main ethical-moral dilemmas that extend over a theoretical-philosophical reflection on the future of our time.