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Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales

Sergei Shubin Orcid Logo, Diana Beljaars Orcid Logo

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Volume: 51, Issue: 2

Swansea University Authors: Sergei Shubin Orcid Logo, Diana Beljaars Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1111/tran.70067

Abstract

This article explores the role of the COVID-19 virus in changing healthcare policies in Wales and their effects on pandemic inequalities. It draws on the analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews with government and healthcare officials in Wales conducted during the cross-European st...

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Published in: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
ISSN: 0020-2754 1475-5661
Published: Wiley 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71640
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The virus disturbed the linear logic of the healthcare system and attempts to make it visible by coding it in biological or economic terms, and exposed the discriminatory politics of viral coding naturalising death and justifying the orders of inclusion and exclusion. Our findings also illustrate viral decoding that blurred the boundaries between humans and non-humans, underscored the limitations of biopolitical management of life, indifference and naturalisation of inequalities in Welsh healthcare. The virus also produced collective and hybrid configurations of forces that undermined the key functions of healthcare as well as created new alliances, unusual forms of co-existence and expressive responses to illness and death. 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spelling 2026-04-27T16:18:01.8794357 v2 71640 2026-03-18 Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales 2944e02dc0e6e0ba376aea2c8575b682 0000-0001-5554-816X Sergei Shubin Sergei Shubin true false 75d2c4b3a29704ce924374f4ff0735bf 0000-0001-6325-310X Diana Beljaars Diana Beljaars true false 2026-03-18 BGPS This article explores the role of the COVID-19 virus in changing healthcare policies in Wales and their effects on pandemic inequalities. It draws on the analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews with government and healthcare officials in Wales conducted during the cross-European study on the varying impacts of pandemic responses on vulnerable groups. Its contribution lies in the development of ‘viral thinking’ to reconsider both the biomedical approaches that overestimated rational pandemic responses, and biopolitical interventions driven by the neoliberal logic of commodification of healthcare provision exacerbating patterns of exclusion. The analysis of viral contamination of Welsh healthcare is split into three parts and builds on poststructuralist conceptualisations of the virus and its interactions with the state in the form of coding, decoding and production of surplus value. The virus disturbed the linear logic of the healthcare system and attempts to make it visible by coding it in biological or economic terms, and exposed the discriminatory politics of viral coding naturalising death and justifying the orders of inclusion and exclusion. Our findings also illustrate viral decoding that blurred the boundaries between humans and non-humans, underscored the limitations of biopolitical management of life, indifference and naturalisation of inequalities in Welsh healthcare. The virus also produced collective and hybrid configurations of forces that undermined the key functions of healthcare as well as created new alliances, unusual forms of co-existence and expressive responses to illness and death. The paper concludes with reflections on the possibilities of viral thinking to resist fixed categories of inequality and embrace virality as a potentially transformative mode of political thought and organisation. Journal Article Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 51 2 Wiley 0020-2754 1475-5661 COVID-19; Deleuze; healthcare; inequality; virus; Wales 1 6 2026 2026-06-01 10.1111/tran.70067 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (101016247) 2026-04-27T16:18:01.8794357 2026-03-18T19:31:59.9454021 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Sergei Shubin 0000-0001-5554-816X 1 Diana Beljaars 0000-0001-6325-310X 2 71640__36618__f400974fb14f4689bc6dfd8d4b67f142.pdf 71640.VoR.pdf 2026-04-27T16:15:20.5330874 Output 412576 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 353 false
title Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales
spellingShingle Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales
Sergei Shubin
Diana Beljaars
title_short Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales
title_full Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales
title_fullStr Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales
title_full_unstemmed Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales
title_sort Organising Inequality: Viral Contamination of Healthcare Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wales
author_id_str_mv 2944e02dc0e6e0ba376aea2c8575b682
75d2c4b3a29704ce924374f4ff0735bf
author_id_fullname_str_mv 2944e02dc0e6e0ba376aea2c8575b682_***_Sergei Shubin
75d2c4b3a29704ce924374f4ff0735bf_***_Diana Beljaars
author Sergei Shubin
Diana Beljaars
author2 Sergei Shubin
Diana Beljaars
format Journal article
container_title Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
container_volume 51
container_issue 2
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
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1475-5661
doi_str_mv 10.1111/tran.70067
publisher Wiley
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
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department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography
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description This article explores the role of the COVID-19 virus in changing healthcare policies in Wales and their effects on pandemic inequalities. It draws on the analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews with government and healthcare officials in Wales conducted during the cross-European study on the varying impacts of pandemic responses on vulnerable groups. Its contribution lies in the development of ‘viral thinking’ to reconsider both the biomedical approaches that overestimated rational pandemic responses, and biopolitical interventions driven by the neoliberal logic of commodification of healthcare provision exacerbating patterns of exclusion. The analysis of viral contamination of Welsh healthcare is split into three parts and builds on poststructuralist conceptualisations of the virus and its interactions with the state in the form of coding, decoding and production of surplus value. The virus disturbed the linear logic of the healthcare system and attempts to make it visible by coding it in biological or economic terms, and exposed the discriminatory politics of viral coding naturalising death and justifying the orders of inclusion and exclusion. Our findings also illustrate viral decoding that blurred the boundaries between humans and non-humans, underscored the limitations of biopolitical management of life, indifference and naturalisation of inequalities in Welsh healthcare. The virus also produced collective and hybrid configurations of forces that undermined the key functions of healthcare as well as created new alliances, unusual forms of co-existence and expressive responses to illness and death. The paper concludes with reflections on the possibilities of viral thinking to resist fixed categories of inequality and embrace virality as a potentially transformative mode of political thought and organisation.
published_date 2026-06-01T07:56:32Z
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