In the face of the current Covid-19 outbreak, even liberty-loving Westerners have started applauding the Chinese government for the draconian measures they've taken (region-wide shutdowns, quarantining millions of people, welding people into their own homes etc. [0]) to contain the epidemic.

Some are even calling the Chinese response a boilerplate for our own governments' reaction. I honestly don't know whether such measures will eventually be necessary in Europe, too, and I defer to the experts' and government officials' assessment of the situation with regard to this.

However, to all of those who are quick to proclaim authoritarian-style reactions to be the new gold standard to handle disease outbreaks: Please also consider the flip side of this type of governance namely the censorship and the lack of open and honest communication with the public that prevented an early response in China to a then still emerging disease [1].

Yes, hindsight is always 20/20 and we don't know whether nations with more freedom of press, speech and science would have reacted more quickly to a new disease like Covid-19. However, it stands to reason that the open, quick and early exchange of information as well as trust in the political and healthcare system is as important in the fight against a new disease as is the possibility to impose quarantine measures.

[0] Mole, Beth (2020.02.07), China takes desperate, “wartime” measures to stop coronavirus in Wuhan, Ars Technica (https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/02/quarantine-camps-door-to-door-searches-in-wuhan-as-coronavirus-rampages-on/, visited on 8th of March 2020)

[1] Page, Jeremy, Wenxin Fan and Natasha Khan, How It All Started (2020.03.06), China’s Early Coronavirus Missteps, Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-it-all-started-chinas-early-coronavirus-missteps-11583508932?, visited on 8th of March 2020)

[2] Gardner, Paul (2020.03.06), China’s coronavirus cover-up: how censorship and propaganda obstructed the truth, The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/chinas-coronavirus-cover-up-how-censorship-and-propaganda-obstructed-the-truth-133095, visited on 9th of March 2020)