Prime minister Narendra Modi warned that if India did not get the next 21 days right it would risk wiping out the gains of 21 years. In South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa ordered one of the world’s strictest lockdowns before the country had registered even a single coronavirus death. The three-week shutdown was necessary, the president said, to save hundreds of thousands of lives.
All across the developing world — with some exceptions, including Brazil — leaders are closing their economies to stop the pandemic. But in countries with high death rates from other illnesses and with brutal levels of poverty, could the cure actually be worse than the disease?
In an era of groupthink, in which not to impose a lockdown risks accusations of mass killing, it is at least worth posing the question. Even if leaders such as Mr Modi or Mr Ramaphosa hold private doubts, their instincts for political survival might force them onward. No one is likely to lose support for being too tough on coronavirus.