Politiche e sistemi sanitari al tempo della pandemia da Covid-19: una lettura sociologica

This essay proposes a preliminary analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic in two closely integrated parts. In the first part, after recalling the reasons for studying pandemic outbreaks in a sociological perspective, we propose a model for a comparative analysis of the health policy strategies adopted in different geographic areas to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. The key features of this model are then outlined in three exemplary cases. The second part of the essay focuses on the responsiveness of the Italian National Health System (NHS) to the pandemic threat by applying the same model. More specifically, the institutional framework and the actors playing a role in the national context are examined along with the main strategies adopted and the social processes that took place in the first phase of the pandemic, considering the regional articulation of the political and health system that conditioned the formulation and outcome of the policies adopted.