I think your criticism is misplaced, since parent was discussing in the narrow context about how effective an authoritarian government in keeping its populace s

I think your criticism is misplaced, since parent was discussing in the narrow context about how effective an authoritarian government in keeping its populace safe from the virus. But the parent comment's claim also has issues too. Whereas Vietnam was able to handle this is helped by its state authority, just looking at China and Russia and Iran shows that authoritarianism alone cannot explain at all why Vietnam seems to be doing well.