Covid 19 - the end of Capitalism?

Austerity is political rather than economic, causing contraction of the state, while benefiting the 'haves'?

Depends what you mean by 'austerity'. If you mean a political decision to lower government spending, resulting in less governmental borrowing/debt monetization/taxes but also resulting in less money available for state operations, then yes. It's a political decision which will disproportionately benefit the rich and disadvantage the poor, because it will preserve the assets and income of the rich and leave less money and services to be distributed to the poorer sections of society.

Also depends what you mean by 'laissez-faire' economics. Invariably it's a matter of degree rather than black and white binary positions. Any state which has taxation and governmental spending is by definition intervening in the market. Some states do it more than others, and as with most things, there are pros and cons to both approaches and both can be done in a wide variety of different ways. For example, you could raise taxes and spend the money on social services. Or you could raise taxes and increase military spending. Both would involve greater state intervention and action, but the results would be very different.

Austerity is predominantly based out of fiscal policy - reduce govt. spending and reduce govt. debt.

QE is based out of monetary policy, which seeks to influence the economy through interest rate setting.

I rather suspect, however, that corporatism and widening of the wealth gap is fuelled by policy and deregulation shifting power and rights away from the person, as opposed to any taxation & spending.

Money supply just oils the machine.