I am going to copy / paste something I just posted on another thread, about how this think tank paper from 10 years ago "predicted" exactly what is going on today.
One of the things in that report was the trick of pointing to the countries (like China) who had a very totalitarian response, then saying, "See? Look how it worked for them, we need to do that over here!" (Never mind that the numbers are fraudulent and the whole thing is manipulated, the point is that they condition people to accept authoritarianism by claiming that's the only way to beat the boogeyman pandemic.)
Here's an excerpt from the report that was spoken about in the video above.
Keep in mind this was written
10 years ago. I'll bold the pertinent parts.
The pandemic blanketed the planet — though disproportionate numbers died in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America, where the virus spread like wildfire in the absence of official containment protocols. But even in developed countries, containment was a challenge. The United States's initial policy of "strongly discouraging" citizens from flying proved deadly in its leniency, accelerating the spread of the virus not just within the U.S. but across borders. However, a few countries did fare better — China in particular. The Chinese government's quick imposition and enforcement of mandatory quarantine for all citizens, as well as its instant and near-hermetic sealing off of all borders, saved millions of lives, stopping the spread of the virus far earlier than in other countries and enabling a swifter post- pandemic recovery.
China's government was not the only one that took extreme measures to protect its citizens from risk and exposure. During the pandemic, national leaders around the world flexed their authority and imposed airtight rules and restrictions, from the mandatory wearing of face masks to body-temperature checks at the entries to communal spaces like train stations and supermarkets. Even after the pandemic faded, this more authoritarian control and oversight of citizens and their activities stuck and even intensified. In order to protect themselves from the spread of increasingly global problems — from pandemics and transnational terrorism to environmental crises and rising poverty— leaders around the world took a firmer grip on power.