"(Norway's prime minister) Solberg held a dedicated press conference where no adults were allowed. She responded to kids’ questions from across the country, taking time to explain why it was OK to feel scared." https://twitter.com/jenheemstra/status/1249868520860549131

"strongmen using the crisis to accelerate.. authoritarianism: blame-“others”, capture-the-judiciary, demonize-the-journalists, blanket their country in I-will-never-retire darkness (Trump, Bolsonaro, Obrador, Modi, Duterte, Orban, Putin, Netanyahu…)."

Why is Modi in this list?

There is a serious intellectual laziness in global media when it comes to India. India has been very different in how it dealt with the Covid-19 crisis as compared to any western country. It is absurd to place prime minister Modi in the same league as "authoritarian strongmen".

1) India was proactively locked down far earlier to rise of the cases.

2) Modi is using public addresses to discuss compassion, resilience and discipline. The media echo chamber does't even look at them?

3) India has fewer deaths per capita than any country mentioned favorably!

It's as absurd to put Modi in this list of "strongmen" who failed in Covid-19 response as it'd be to put Japan's Abe in this list! The stupid media might club all of them into a single blob, but they cannot be blind to the difference of Asian countries in dealing with Covid-19.

Compare the death rate in India with the countries mentioned favorably in the Forbes Report: Norway, Denmark, Germany.. It is much lower!

If they are bitching about Modi, they might as well bitch about Chung Sye-Kyun, the prime minister of South Korea !! https://twitter.com/ShamikaRavi/status/1249538648493547521?s=20

If there is any broad conclusion to be drawn from the relative success of Covid-19 response across different countries, it's that Asian countries have reacted with remarkable foresight and precaution, while western countries bungled up majorly. This is the overarching trend.

By Asian, I mean the countries east to India.

The predominantly Islamic West Asian countries have been very similar in their plight to their Christian counterparts. A big part of infections come from religious congregations, which form a central element in Abrahamic religions.

Here is a Guardian article on the impact of religious congregations on the viral spread of various countries. This article has entirely left out the viral explosion of Tablighi Jamaat, that is responsible for the lion's share of Covid-19 cases in India. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/the-cluster-effect-how-social-gatherings-were-rocket-fuel-for-coronavirus

I realized that this feminist article in the Forbes magazine does not mention the leaders of Bangladesh (Sheikh Hasina) and Myanmar (Aung San Suu Kyi) or their efforts to keep control of the Covid-19 pandemic.