COVID-19 has brought the world grinding to a halt. As of early August 2020, the greatest public health emergency of the century thus far has registered almost 20 million infected people and claimed over 730,000 lives across all inhabited continents, bringing public health systems to their knees, and causing shutdowns of borders and lockdowns of cities, regions, and even nations unprecedented in the modern era. Yet, as this Article demonstrates—with diverse examples drawn from across the world—there are unmistakable regressions into authoritarianism in governmental efforts to contain the virus. Despite the unprecedented nature of this challenge, there is no sound justification for systemic erosion of rights-protective democratic ideals and institutions beyond that which is strictly demanded by the exigencies of the pandemic. A Wuhan-inspired all-or-nothing approach to viral containment sets a dangerous precedent for future pandemics and disasters, with the global copycat response indicating an impending ‘pandemic’ of a different sort, that of authoritarianization. With a gratuitous toll being inflicted on democracy, civil liberties, fundamental freedoms, healthcare ethics, and human dignity, this has the potential to unleash humanitarian crises no less devastating than COVID-19 in the long run.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19紧急措施和即将到来的专制大流行

COVID-19使世界停滞不前。截至2020年8月上旬，迄今为止，本世纪以来最大的突发公共卫生事件已导致近2000万感染者登记，并在所有居住大洲夺走了73万多人的生命，这使公共卫生系统屈服，并导致边境关闭和城市封锁，地区甚至国家，这在现代时代都是空前的。但是，正如本文所展示的那样（从世界各地汲取了各种各样的例子），在政府遏制该病毒的努力中，威权主义毫无疑问地倒退了。尽管这一挑战具有前所未见的性质，但除流行病紧急情况所严格要求的范围外，没有合理的理由要求对保护权利的民主理想和体制进行系统性的削弱。武汉启发的全有或全无的病毒遏制方法为未来的流行病和灾难树立了危险的先例，全球的模仿反应表明，即将到来的另一种“大流行”，即威权化。长期以来，由于民主，公民自由，基本自由，医疗保健道德和人的尊严给人们造成了巨大的损失，这有可能释放出与COVID-19一样严重的人道主义危机。