particular, illuminated the problems in the health care system. Industrial nations such as Italy, Spain
or the USA were facing a collapse of their medical supply. Structural deficits such as undersized
capacities of hospitals, insufficient supply of medical materials such as masks, ventilators or
medication as well as poorly paid and overwhelmed personnel were laid bare in the pandemic. In
Spain and Northern Italy triage was applied, granting only the fittest patients the right to medical
treatment. Older and already ill individuals could no longer be guaranteed a hospital bed or the use
of a ventilator. The contradictions between biopolitics and democratic rights, which already exist,
became exacerbated in the pandemic. In this context, the deadly consequences of an austerity policy
caused by the state’s withdrawal from critical infrastructure were also exposed. In nations such as
the USA, where there is no universal or mandatory health insurance and inequalities are especially
apparent in the health sector