Covid-19 has created an unprecedented collective crisis affecting almost all of the world’s states simultaneously. As with the climate emergency, the pandemic is global, both in its causes and potential lethality. Yet in the absence of a guiding universal framework, political responses have occurred mostly at the national level. National response policies have unveiled systemic inequalities through their disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups and set in motion disturbing legal developments that may have a detrimental impact on human rights and democracy.