Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Which world leader has the worst pandemic record?
A CATASTROPHIC pandemic and a calamitous presidency combined to give the US the world’s worst pandemic death toll. That was essentially confirmed by Deborah Birx, President Donald Trump’s Covid-19 task force co-ordinator, who told CNN that most deaths in the US could have been prevented.
And yet – cold comfort – Trump might not have been the worst leader of the pandemic. Others arguably botched the crisis more than Trump did, and the list tells you a lot about the state of global governance.
It’s hard to top the response of Nicaragua’s near-eternal President Daniel Ortega and his wife, who responded to news of a pandemic by calling people into the streets for a festive parade they called “Love in the Time of Covid-19” – a perversely fitting allusion to the work of Gabriel García Márquez, whose novels seamlessly blend fact and hallucination. The reckless move horrified human rights activists and scientists alike.
Hard to top it is, but not impossible. There’s President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, where the health-care system is on the verge of collapse, and the unchecked spread of the virus has spawned variants now threatening other struggling countries. Bolsonaro echoed Trump’s claims about hydroxychloroquine,
squandering emergency pandemic funds on the useless treatment. He fired health ministers for refusing to go along with his Covid-19 denial and claimed that Brazilians might be immune to the “little flu” because they swim in sewage and nothing happens to them. Bolsonaro, who himself became infected, called on Brazilians to protest antivirus measures and joined them in the streets. Few people wore masks, and he shook hands – sometimes after coughing into his own. As thousands died daily, he recently told Brazilians to “stop whining” about it.
Another president who caught the virus while playing it down is Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Early on, he advised Mexicans to “live life as usual.” Even after he became infected, he refused to wear a mask. He says he will wear one when corruption is eradicated in Mexico, a distant prospect.
As in the US, wearing masks became highly politicised, a development that contributed to the climbing death toll. This weekend, Mexican authorities quietly released a report showing the real count is 60% higher than the official figure, putting Mexico neck and neck with Brazil for the world’s second-highest pandemic death toll, behind the US.
Coincidence? Populism seems to be a comorbidity in a pandemic, raising its deadly toll. Then there are the dictators, like Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, who described the pandemic as nothing more than a “psychosis” and prescribed vodka and saunas to prevent it. Lukashenko, who has faced months of mass protests after a disputed election last year, has blocked common-sense measures to slow down the virus at almost every turn.Yet many Belarusians have resisted his negligent approach – just
as many have pushed back against his dictatorship. Ignoring his calamitous advice, individuals practiced social distancing, held crowdfunding campaigns to buy supplies for hospitals and, in the end, have probably helped to keep the virus and the death toll in Belarus from spiraling out of control.
In Turkmenistan, another postSoviet dictatorship, the government has set a new low for denial by banning masks and any discussion of the pandemic. The use of the word “coronavirus” has reportedly been outlawed in media or health information materials. Turkmenistan still claims it hasn’t had any Covid-19 cases.
In Cambodia, where Prime Minister Hun Sen has held power since 1985 (making him one of the world’s longest-serving heads of government), the first move was denial. He welcomed cruise ship passengers shunned by other countries for fear of the pandemic. Gradually, his response turned to repression, banning criticism and arresting those who complained, then using the emergency to tighten the regime’s grip.
In Africa, President John Magufuli of Tanzania also dismissed talk of a global emergency. He told people not to bother with masks or vaccines, claiming that three days of prayer eradicated the virus in Tanzania. Magufuli died last month. The authorities say he died from heart complications, but members of the opposition say they have it on good authority that he died of Covid-19.
It’s impossible to cover all the outrages by populist demagogues and assorted tyrants. Every world leader made mistakes, but there’s something uniquely malignant about the manipulations and deceptions of the most outrageous players. Yet the sense of absurdity is quickly stifled by the realisation that their actions have likely contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands around the world – perhaps more. As for Trump, he has a lot of competition for the title of worst pandemic president. But he’s still a contender.
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