> live in a democracy and take my chances with Covid-19 than live under an authoritarian regime.

that's a straw man false dichotomy. It's not mutually exclusive. Just because trump and his administration handled it poorly, doesn't mean it can't be handled well under a democracy. Look at new zealand and australia - they handled it fairly well.

I think it's an appropriate reply to someone specifically holding up China's COVID response as an example of the right answer.

Both democracies and authoritarian regimes can be found among governments that have had laissez-faire policies and both can be found among those that have had strict lockdowns. You can probably find the world's full range of policy responses to COVID-19 within the United States.