Corona between Authorities and Democracies ... Marathon of False Comparisons

Since the outbreak of the new Corona virus (Covid-19), the high number of its victims and those infected with it, and its global spread, there has been a heated debate on social media - as well as between researchers and specialists - about the efficiency of political systems in responding to the virus, and dealing with its implications medically, politically and economically.

It seems that some admire the ability of authoritarian regimes to counter the virus and stop its spread, by imposing strict measures and restrictions on the behavior and actions of citizens, similar to what China, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and others are doing.

This is in exchange for weak - and perhaps failed - democratic systems to stop the spread of the virus and reduce the number of its victims; as is the case in most democratic countries in Europe - such as Italy, France, Spain and Britain - and America and others.

The reality of the situation is that the comparison between the authorities and democracies in dealing with the emerging corona pandemic is not appropriate, and it appears based on a superficial reading of what is happening, nor does it benefit much in the complex nature imposed by the virus, and how different governments respond to it.

Rather, it distracts the discussion away from the essence of the issue, which is the efficiency of health systems, the accompanying public policies, and their ability to deal efficiently with this deadly virus. Some authorities and democracies alike follow health systems in which the state plays an influential role, providing health care to all citizens with a high degree of efficiency.

Take an authoritarian state like China, which over the past years - especially since 2006 - has radically restructured its health system, and has begun implementing a new health system that provides health care to all residents, especially those who live outside major cities. According to some statistics, this new system covered nearly 95% of China's citizens, who numbered about a billion and a half billion people.

Although China allows international private companies to invest in its health sector, the volume of its public spending on the health sector has increased significantly over the past decade. The proportion of Chinese spending on the health sector in 2018 reached nearly one trillion dollars, about half of which was spent on developing health care in rural areas.

On the other hand, a democratic country like Germany has also modernized its health system during the past decade, so that the state covers nearly 75% of health care services, and the volume of public spending on the health sector reached about 11% of GDP, while it reached Health care per capita is around five thousand euros per year. It follows a system of health insurance not only locally, but globally, that covers citizens of Germany outside their country.

Both countries (China and Germany) were able to reduce the repercussions and impact of the emerging coronavirus, whether in terms of the number of infections or deaths, compared to the number of cases that were infected, if we assume the correctness of the numbers from China, a question around which many question marks revolve due to the lack of Transparency, and the closed authoritarian nature of the political system there.

In addition to the severe restrictions imposed by China on its citizens, its health infrastructure has helped to respond quickly to HIV cases. Field hospitals were set up in record time, to accommodate cases of infection, especially in the city of "Wuhan", which was the epicenter of the virus spread locally and globally.

As for Germany, it has succeeded - in a remarkable way - in reducing the number of deaths from the virus, and the number did not exceed 1,600 deaths at the time of writing this article, despite the high number of infections in it, as it reached about 100,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. This represents 1.6%, which is a small percentage compared to about 12% in Italy, 4% in China and 3% in America.

Perhaps one of the main reasons that contributed to this is the number of experiments and tests carried out by Germany on its citizens, which reach about half a million people per week, thus isolating the cases that prove that they are infected.

Likewise, examples of authoritarian and democratic regimes that fail miserably to deal with the emerging Corona virus can be cited. Take electoral authoritarianism in Russia, or the military oligarchy in Egypt, and both countries have a dilapidated health infrastructure.

On the other hand, take liberal democracy - whether in Italy, America or Britain - and you will find that the health systems in these countries are ineffective, and they have so far failed to respond to the developments of the virus, and have shown that they cannot absorb the numbers of infected people, which are doubling dramatically around the clock.

Therefore, the comparison between the nature of political systems and whether they are democratic or authoritarian, and linking this to their ability to respond to the emerging Corona virus, may not help us much in understanding the different reactions of countries and their interaction with this virus.

Nor will it help change the convictions of the nature of both regimes, at least for their supporters. Neither the authoritarianists are able to convince the world that they are more efficient in dealing with epidemics and natural disasters, nor democratic societies and peoples are willing to compromise their constitutional, legal and political rights, under the pretext of the failure of their systems In dealing with the pandemic "Covid-19". Some democracies have failed to deal with this crisis, and others have succeeded. There are powers that succeeded in tackling the virus, and others failed.

It is true that authoritarian governments enjoy a great deal of effectiveness in applying exceptional procedures and restrictions that do not mobilize much in violation of the constitution or respect for human rights, nor is there any transparency or free press that can monitor the performance of these governments, compared to democratic governments that are subject to criticism and evaluation by Its citizens, institutions and the media. But this does not explain the success or failure of these governments in dealing with the Corona pandemic.

In short, it can be said that the pandemic of the emerging coronavirus revealed the hidden in all countries, whether authoritarian or democratic. We may need time to know the extent of its impact on the political structure of these countries, and to test the extent of their peoples' conviction of their performance, efficiency, and judgment, after the dust of "Coffid-19" clears.