> 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.