Forbes April 3, 2020
Transparency and information sharing are not exactly strong suits of authoritarian states. The inability to freely communicate information coupled with denialism are recipes for disaster in the face of a pandemic. Governments can’t imprison a virus. So, how do authoritarian states deal with the novel coronavirus? Well, there’s a wide range of responses, from the wacky, to being in denial, to the problematic.
The Wacky
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has called the coronavirus a “psychosis” that can be remedied with vodka and saunas. Lukashenko has been shown on national television playing ice hockey and embracing fellow players.
Life goes on in Belarus more or less as if nothing’s changed. And so, for soccer and sports-starved fans throughout the world there’s...