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The initial underestimation of the risk posed by the pandemic gave way to chaotic management of the various stages of lockdown and, later, of the first lifting of restrictions. The savage spread of the virus highlighted the failings of a healthcare system subjected to privatization policies since the 1980s and weakened by austerity from 2010 onward. Faced with the influx of patients, public hospitals were crippled by massive understaffing and suffered shortages of essential equipment, which lasted for many weeks. Emergency measures admittedly allowed those challenges to be addressed, but on terms that revealed the scale of inequalities in the face of a pandemic.