El derecho a la salud en tiempos de pandemia en Colombia: entre la inequidad endémica y el estado de emergencia

Purpose/Context. The COVID-19 pandemic and the health emergency unleashed allows us to analyze, from bioethics and biolaw, the problems related to the principle of distributive justice, in the structural context of endemic inequity in Colombia.

Methodology/Approach. This article performs an analysis of the regulatory adjustments in Colombia in relation to the guarantee of the right to health, in the context of the attention to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Results/Findings. Despite the regulatory adjustments and the declaration of the state of health emergency in Colombia, the persistence of social and economic inequity in different regions, the lack of intervention on social determinants, the irregular working conditions of health workers and the difficulties to materialize the principle of reciprocity constitute barriers to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic on the most vulnerable populations.

Discussion/Conclusions/Contributions. No health system in the world was prepared for the challenges generated by the pandemic and even when contingency regulations were issued, the deep gaps of distributive justice and regional inequity in Colombia remain critical, as well as the non-compliance with the principles set forth in the statutory health law.