This article focuses on bans and constraints imposed by governments to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to highlight the potentially negative eff ect of such measures on democratic rights, liberties and social inequalities. The main claim is that the assessment of such measures should take into account the nature of the political power determining them. Governments acting within the neoliberal order have distanced themselves from welfare state principles. Instead, political decision-making favors the market and capital. Working classes and low-income groups are being forced into precarity through biopolitical strategies. Public health is no longer a priority. It is highly probable that pandemic related measures will be used to pursue goals other than promoting public health. The article discusses this probability under two headings, starting first with the political implications of such measures and turning next to economic ones. The first part of the text examines the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on democratic backsliding and increased surveillance possibilities, taking the concept of biopolitics as the main axis of discussion. The second part looks not only at economic inequalities but also at gender and identity based imbalances generated by pandemic measures.