Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has affected absolutely the whole world, and this is the first such case in modern history. Medical resources and technology around the world have come together to tackle a common disaster. However, the struggle in different countries took place in different ways. The reason for this is, among other things, the cultural differences between them. This paper will analyze two countries ̶ South Korea and France. The cultural aspects of these countries, each in their way, influenced the fight against the coronavirus COVID-19 at different levels of the social and state structure. Long-term orientation, individualism, and distance from power, three of the six cultural dimensions of Hofstede, were selected as aspects of the comparative analysis in this work. These cultural aspects are quite contrasting for the selected two countries, so their manifestation and difference will be visible. In addition, the fight against the pandemic is also regulated by various social and economic factors and the country’s foreign policy since the communication of countries in the world community has forcedly increased. Individualism and Distance from Power Everyday life has been disrupted by the coronavirus worldwide, but the response to these changes has varied. Forced distancing, regulated by the state, economic problems have affected the population of the whole world. As a result, physical health deteriorated due to the spread of the virus and the psychological health of those who were not directly affected by the virus. France found itself under a nationwide travel restriction from mid-March to late May. Compared to other countries in Europe or, for example, the United States, France responded quickly at the state level in response to the COVID-19 crisis (Dean et al., 2021). South Korea has taken less stringent measures at the state level, introducing a testing and isolation system with a targeted quarantine policy (Dighe et al., 2020). It is worth noting that, geographically, South Korea was much closer to the epidemic outbreak. Therefore, of the possible reasons for taking measures that did not correspond to this situation, at that time, there was a complete lack of experience in fighting the virus. South Korea is considered a collectivist society, so reasonably large groups in society maintain loyal relations with each other. At the same time, France considers a society to be individual, where children are brought up independent of groups more extensive than the family (Hofstede Insights, n.d.). However, the emotional addiction of the French has influenced the response to the pandemic. It is supported by the high rates of loneliness and stress during the pandemic in France and South Korea (Dean et al., 2021). As future statistics will show, the imposition of local restrictions in South Korea was not a mistake on the part of the state, while in France, a quick response did not save the country from many cases of illness. With a population of about 67 million in France, South Korea is home to an estimated 51 million, but peak incidence rates per day reached more than 85,000 in France, compared to 1,132 in South Korea (Worldometer, 2021). It is necessary to consider in more detail the aspect itself and other factors that led to such indicators to argue that these indicators confirm the failure of countries with predominant individualism in the fight against COVID-19. France also has high levels of distance from power, which reveals some national character traits. The French are accustomed to submitting to an impersonal center of power that cannot