In the Coronavirus Pandemic Battle, Populist Leaders Perform Poorly

“They basically are calling for disruption to attack the state and for distrust of institutions. And in objective reality, the virus disproves all of that," he said.

“Because you need a functioning bureaucracy, you have to have confidence in the numbers, and you have to respond in a scientific way. Otherwise, more people will die and more people will get infected," Thomas Wright continued.

— In the United States and Brazil, Trump and Bolsonaro at times have minimized the disease, touted unproven remedies and sparred with and sidelined scientists and health officials.

Instead of framing and implementing a consistent anti-Covid strategy for their nations, they often have seen state and local leaders leading the fight.

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— In Britain, Johnson was slow to order closures when the disease was raging on the European continent.

But he became much more serious about fighting it after his own serious illness left him fighting to breathe.

— In India, Modi addressed the disease aggressively in terms of closures and lockdowns but also argued over facts with his government’s own statisticians, controlled information and at times promoted homeopathic and folk cures.

When it comes to the coronavirus, Jishnu Das, an economics professor at Georgetown University, sees common strands between India and the United States, the world's two largest democracies.

“What the virus looks for is any weakness in our system. And it hones into it and pries it open," says Das, who studies health and has been working with two state governments in India to tailor their pandemic responses.