A lot has been written recently about the relative efficacy of government responses to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The global dimension of this virus and its disturbing omnipresence has threatened every country equally, regardless of their different forms of political government, institutional structure, public health infrastructures and economy.

Shortcomings in this response from well-established democracies hasn’t gone unnoticed. Neither has the relative success certain authoritarian regimes have had at containing its spread.