Editorials & Other Articles

Judi Lynn

(160,525 posts) Fri Jun 19, 2020, 02:09 PM Jun 2020

The four countries hardest hit by the coronavirus are all led by authoritarian leaders

The crisis has laid bare the tendencies of authoritarian leaders and their disregard for human life.
Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei June 19, 2020

In between Trump’s erratic and non-scientific ideas and Bolsonaro’s outright refusal to acknowledge the virus, the US and Brazil, as well as India and Russia have a lot in common in how they dealt with the pandemic — and they are paying a heavy price for it.

The total number of coronavirus cases, at the time of this writing.

There was a fair share of randomness in how the pandemic moved from China to the rest of the world. There’s no particularly good reason why Italy would be the first non-China hotspot and Spain would follow. But now, as the months have passed and the entire world was exposed to relatively the same risk, the effects of individual countries’ approaches and policies become much more impactful.

While the likes of Angela Merkel and Jacinda Ardern have been praised for their leadership and the way they kept the pandemic in check, others have had a dismal record.

Coincidentally or not, the four countries with the highest coronavirus tally are also countries led by authoritarian, nationalistic leaders, whose main motivation was not to keep the situation under control, but rather to preserve their strong-man image.

More:
https://www.zmescience.com/other/pieces/the-four-countries-hardest-hit-by-the-coronavirus-are-all-led-by-authoritarian-leaders/