You'd also have to acknowledge that the (Chinese) authoritarian response is what allowed the outbreak to get this bad in the first place. In the United States the Federal response has looked much more like the authoritarian response — no action for regular people, misdirection, profiteering, and grabbing for more power. Compared to the responses we saw under more democratic government against Zika, Ebola, Avian Flu, and Swine Flu its an embarrassment.

The individual states that are responding the best are all heavily liberal/democratic led states - CA, WA, NY, IL. Some of the less liberal states are doing good (OH), but most are doing really terribly (FL). The evidence seems to point in the direction of working democratic government being best suited for handling this crisis. Since the world largely does not have working democratic government in 2020, we have a pandemic.

> You'd also have to acknowledge that the (Chinese) authoritarian response is what allowed the outbreak to get this bad in the first place.

I have so far seen zero reason to believe that if the outbreak originated in Kansas, or Poland, or Bangalore, it would not have spread across the world by now.

The difference in reaction between red/blue states has less to do with liberalism/authoritarianism, and more to do with the anti-science bent of the modern US right.

responding the most is not the same as responding the best. Time will tell. But given that many if not most people want to limit shutdowns, the above is a technocratic opinion, not a democratic one.

If improper response allows the outbreak to get bad then why are CA, WA, NY having bad outbreaks? Could it be that negative feelings about Trump do not protect from coronavirus?

Fortunately South Korea makes a great case that you can handle this without an authoritarian approach. At this point I think it's likely they become the model. Maybe a mix of Singapore and Japan as well.