The Vicissitudes of the Public and the Private in Pandemic

Humanity has known other pandemics more serious than the current one; however, we are not facing a simple reiteration of the past. Those occurred under other contexts, without the mobility and interconnection on a global scale that exists today. This world came to a sudden stop and transformed our habits and daily life in ways previously unknown. Unprecedented forms of privatization, with forced physical distancing, but without social distancing, thanks to the networks, were accompanied by a strengthening of the state public. This was accepted -for practical reasons rather than for convictions- by governments of different political and ideological signs. The pandemic acted as a great accelerator of existing processes. The article reviews how this will affect the relationship between public and private, as well as their borders and their links.