This chapter aims to reflect on the work of our multidisciplinary and international authors by putting their contributions into wider perspective. The unknowns around this novel virus and the scale of the epidemic made COVID-19 and its inequalities a timely subject. Understanding each of these issues from the perspective of multiple disciplines, with law at its centre, was our first step towards tackling inequalities. This chapter will now offer avenues for future reflections that look for solutions to eliminate inequalities beyond the context of just the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the overall aim of this collection is to look beyond the virus, and this chapter seeks to situate the contributions in this collection into the fabric of everyday society. In this way, we can progress towards social justice.

We will first unpack how the three overarching themes of power and governance, inequalities relating to gender and inequalities affecting marginalized communities have come together in this book to offer a unique perspective on streams of inequality heightened by the pandemic. To do so, we will consider how the book’s unique expertise has brought into sharper focus the pivotal role played by the law, by rules and by regulation during the public health crisis and demonstrate how alternative forms of governance have emerged in reaction to governmental failings. We will then focus on drawing broader conclusions from these findings, going beyond the virus. The research demonstrates that inequalities have not just emerged from the devastating effects of the virus but have become deep rooted as a result of exclusion, structural racism and hidden vulnerabilities, further cemented by the pandemic. We argue that underlying much of the discussion in this collection is the importance of ensuring that intersectional voices come through to overcome intersectional invisibility that has led to such stark inequalities.

Reactive responses to the pandemic

The diversity of contributions included in this collection from multiple disciplines and geographies have succinctly drawn attention to blatant and hidden social inequalities in many societies around the world. Whether it was in the Global South or Global North, the impact of the pandemic was felt globally and indeed, in not so dissimilar ways.