I think the West's individualistic attitudes and refusal to bow to authority are a significant part of the reason COVID has hit the West so badly.
In many ways, this is common sense; cultures where central authority is more open to challenge, and where there is less of a commitment to common goals, are hardly well-suited to a pandemic requiring high coordination and where the costs of your actions are likely to be borne by others. Put another way, they are more likely to do things like this*.
Since this is an obvious hypothesis, some people have already studied this systematically, and every study I've found backs this up**.
In spite of that, some of my friends seem to be using the pandemic to double-down on pro-individualism anti-expert attitudes. I understand the impulse; the UK and US responses to the COVID pandemic have been variously slow, incoherent, and badly-informed. It's natural to say 'man the government has done so badly, obviously I could have done better'.
And for a very few of my friends, this may actually be true. But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that on the whole, the idea that Western-style individualism is just better than South-East-Asian-style collectivism has just taken a giant COVID-sized beating. For every person who was arguing masks were great back in February, 10 more have refused to wear masks in the last six months. For every person arguing for early lockdowns at the same time, 10 more have refused to stay in their homes once the lockdown order arrives. This is a time for humility, not bravado.
The East is watching and many there have already pointed out the above***. Certainly China will be using the devastation the virus has inflicted on the West as justification for their approach to government for years if not decades to come.
They have a point! I'd still bet on something closer to the Western approach winning in the long run, because I think the gains of open debate and individual freedom still overall outweigh the costs (e.g. see events in Hong Kong). But pretending this pandemic is anything other than a huge demonstrated loss for that belief is simply not a position I can defend. I used to think that when push came to shove, a large demonstrated crisis would invoke a spirit of unity similar to that seen in the World Wars, even in the individualistic West, and people would come together.
I was wrong.
*https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-55280321
https://twitter.com/apbenven/status/1339256891508142087
- apbenven
**https://www.nber.org/papers/w27776
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3646229