The equivocal healthcare market in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic: Policy, politics and life

Abstract

Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic research in Bangladesh, I analyse how the COVID-19 pandemic intersected with the global and local healthcare markets in 2020 to shape public health governance affecting public health interests, needs, and lives. In the early phase, misuse of administrative power and corruption among bureaucrats, local government representatives, and political leaders became apparent in Bangladesh. It fostered public and private health catastrophes, exposing some of the fraudulence in medical equipment provision and the treatment of COVID-19 disease. Due to the state's denial, citizens were deprived of local low-cost solutions (e.g. rapid antigen test kits) for early infection detection. Engaging the concept of disaster capitalism, I argue that the elusive role of the state, the politicised ground of health governance, and the medicine market combined with corruption in public and private sectors ultimately benefited private corporations rather than the urgent health needs of Bangladeshis.