Civil disorder authority credibility and public health: Chile’s unique sociopolitical context in dealing with COVID-19

摘要

On 3 March 2020, the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the country, approximately five months after 18 October 2019, one of Chile’s biggest episodes of civil unrest since its return to democracy in the 90s [1]. This social unrest was triggered by deep social inequalities and resulted in massive protests throughout the country. The citizens were responding to widespread inequalities in various sectors such as jobs, housing, education and public health and the main Chilean governmental institutions were called to account [2]. These social unrests severely dented the government’s credibility and compromised the reliability of key governmental institutions such as law enforcement and the military, all of them, now playing a key role in the Public Health response to the novel coronavirus.