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Azerbaijan is a modern, rapidly developing democratic country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. The country is currently harmonizing its national legislation with international norms, and reforming its national scientific and medical. Higher standards of medical research and education will enhance public health and protect human rights to life and health that are specified in Azerbaijan Constitution. In order to raise its medical research and education to international standards, Azerbaijani scientists and authorities are studying the experience of other countries and taking measures to implement international standards and norms in the country's national legislation. Cooperation with the WHO, UNESCO and other international and foreign organizations, both on regional and global level is creating steps to achieve this goal. These steps include, for example, creation of the Azerbaijan unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and teaching bioethics based on UNESCO's Bioethics Core Curriculum. Another step is providing research fellowship for young Azerbaijani professionals to study at leading medical research and educational centers around the world including Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital in the USA, and Koc University in Turkey. A complementary step is the development of local bioethical research, including its legal, ethical and scientific foundations. Adherence to ethical principles in different spheres of life is currently one of the most challenging social and professional issues, especially, this is true with the development of new medical technologies in recent decades and the development of new ethical and legal standards, issues involving different areas of health and medicine and their relation to human rights. Bioethics in Azerbaijan is developing as an important field that deals with universal moral principles within the context of both national laws and the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.

More than a year has passed since the appearance of disease called COVID-19 in the world. This disease became the reason for unprecedented measures taken so far, having received the classification of pandemic. The world has faced with pandemics before, but society has not yet taken such unprecedented restrictive measures. The restrictions of not only local but even of global nature, such as the suspension of international flights, various scientific and political events were adopted around the world. Media resources have played a key role in the formation and development of the attitude towards the disease in people. Despite all the depressing news, the facts showed a low mortality rate, which is often ignored by the media. As a result, medical staff around the world have faced psychological health issues among the different groups of the population, especially vulnerable ones such as people with chronic disease and with weak immunity. At present, it is early to talk about the results and outcomes of the pandemic. However, previous year has taught us many lessons and can become a key factor in understanding the role of the media in pandemic times, developing strategies for combating diseases and protecting public health.