It's pertinent to examine if there is any relationship between spread and control of disease like COVID19 & democracy. On its face this question appears to be wastage as it's perceived it's administration and not form of the govt which efficiency matters in such cases. That's why it's argued that on the one hand the robust democracy of the US failed to contain the disease and on the other hand smaller South Korea could manage the things more effectively. On the one hand totalitarian China , as per it's governmental data tell us could be ruthless against the disease whereas Russia slipped. These very examples do establish the notion that form of government is irrelevant in dealing with the disease. Rather it's a test of the public and health administration which are actually dealing with the COVID19 crisis.
But in reality this notion has its own limitations as this notion is based on two presumptions which are inherently false-
One , it is presumed that the system of public administration is not dependent te on the form of the government and in turn the political milieu in which it has been built and has been working,
and secondly, it is also presumed that the form of the government may or may not be good but it has no bearing on the creation and function of the public administration and in turn governmental system is not responsible for the health of the civil administration.
Thus when we closely look at our original question which deals with the relationship between spread and control of the disease on one hand and democracy on the other hand we find the main player , the civil or public administration plays it's roles as per the dictates of its political system. A civil administration is reflective of the quality of political system under which it is set up and it works.
So it's relevant to examine this relationship. In modern days democracies work through participation. In fact, political scientists have unanimity in declaring modern democracy a participative democracy in which participation is ensured through representation. In this way participative democracy of modern times is a representative democracy. The natural corollary of this principle is that a better democracy in modern times is that which ensures more participation of its members in creating representation. Where representation has broader peoples' participation democracy is considered stonger and that democracy is considered as a better democracy. Now the question arises how is this made possible. By ensuring higher percentage of voter turn out in elections? Of course this is one way but not only one way as democracy does not function only through elected members but most of the functioning of the democracy are done by its institutions and practices, beliefs and customs. Here a new door of evaluation of democracy opens up. To ensure more and more people's participation in the democracy of a country it's necessary that the penetration of democratic institutions and democratic beliefs, practices and customs go deeper and deeper. This is possible only when democracy is all encompassing from parliament to the village communities. When the democratic values of the top level finds it's replication at the bottom it ensures participation of more and more people in democratic process.
In such a democracy community has better access to the information and greater control over the situation. In this light if we examine the relationship between spread and control of the pandemic and the status of democracy we find how the status of democracy is affecting the pandemic. In a community rooted democracy there is smooth and free flow of information regarding the disease and as the community has access to the resources it's in the position to react timely and effectively. The community is capable of formulating policies and of executing them. We all know this disease has no medicine and vaccine at present only awareness can avoid it's deadly impact. In case of the community based democracy where the information is available at the earliest and where community has resources it is possible to dessiminate the required information to the lowest level in practically no time. At the same time in comperision of the far situated central command the community is in a better position to exercise control over and influence it's members and the community has local means for these exercises which the central command can't have. In such a system civil administration is more and more accountable to the community level leadership and consequently is more responsive to the local needs. This also ensures community level supervision of the administration. In such a situation administration has no option but to be answerable to the needs of each and every cotizen.
This system has its own economic virtues besides political one. It's cheaper way to spread the required information. And if the community system has gained strength over period of time it has its own self sustainable economic infrastructure. When modern technology knitted well with local resources and skills and craftsmanship is available even the toughest terrain has own self sustaining economic activities engaging local population. This is definitely suitable means to avoid the issues of job loss owing to the pandemic. And a community based democracy is more suited for better gender equality as well.
This amply shows it's the status of the democracy which ultimately decides our success in the fight against the pandemic. Local democracy is more capable of carrying the message of the central command to the deepest roots of the society. So more is the democracy more is the control over health hazards.