Not just that, but communicable pathogens cause psychological changes in people that make them more prone to accepting authoritarian rule. People become withdrawn, paranoid, hateful of outsiders, stronger levels of disgust, etc. when exposed to pathogens as an evolutionary form of germ theory that make them more accepting of authoritarian regimes.
Plus when political leaders have an internal or external enemy to rally around, the leader becomes more popular. George HW Bushs approval rating skyrocketed to near 90% during the first gulf war.
His polls did only increase about 5% and reached about 50% of approval 2 weeks ago, and now his popularity is going down to the usual 44% approval and 51% disapproval in the last polls.
To me, the most obvious one is the fact that leftists push affirmative action and other efforts based on the assumption that various institutions should be “diverse”, as opposed to granting entrance based solely on merit. They do this in medicine as well as every other field. The COVID-19 pandemic has given a rude reminder why we sometimes want only the best people doing a particular job, rather than a group chosen entirely or partially to be “diverse”. Everybody wants a vaccine. Nobody seems to much care whether the vaccine is invented by a rich white man or a disabled Latina transwoman.
Has there been some evidence that the unlike their white collegues health workers of color are somehow not up to the job in this pandemic or that a white invented vaccine is being suppressed in favor of one invented by a disabled Latina transwoman. If not I’m going to dismiss this as racist BS. If there is anything that is hurting our response to this virus it is one very prominent rich white (well orange actually) guy.