 Today, three countries lead the global COVID-19 case count, the United States, Brazil, and India. These three countries are also currently reporting the highest number of new cases. What links the three countries is the rule of strongmen Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Narendra Modi. The high number of cases is strongly linked to how each of these leaders has handled the pandemic. Each of these authoritarian leaders has consolidated power on the lines of race and religion and is backed by big capital. Their policies have played a great role in increasing the disparity in their respective countries and attacking people's rights. Yet another commonality is their ignoring of science, promotion of superstition, and even outright denial. It has been seven months since the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in China in December last year. China had around 85,000 confirmed cases as well as 4,641 deaths. But they managed to curb the spread of the virus and became corona free by the end of April. The Chinese had to undertake this ordeal under heavy imperialist propaganda and racism. The virus was in fact initially reported by global media as the Wuhan virus. One of the key proponents of this xenophobic rhetoric was the U.S. president Donald Trump himself. COVID, to be specific, COVID-19, that name gets further and further away from China as opposed to calling it the Chinese virus. By the way, it's a disease without question, has more names than any disease in history. I can name Kung Flu, I can name 19 different versions of that. To date, Trump has been in constant denial of the seriousness of the virus. His counterparts in Brazil and India have taken a similar approach. Jair Bolsonaro, who himself is COVID positive, has time and again been in denial of the virus. He called the virus just a little cold. The world has shown us that the risk group is people over 60 years old, so why close the schools is one of his infamous remarks. He even said that the press is causing panic and hysteria in Brazilian society while reporting on COVID-19. His public stand against lockdown has made his relationship with governors of various states turbulent. As of July 16th, Brazil has more than 1,966,000 confirmed cases, as well as over 75,300 deaths. India has over 968,800 confirmed cases and over 24,900 deaths. The actual numbers may be even higher. Meanwhile, the Modi government has been busy privatizing public sector undertakings, increasing taxes on patrolling products, and witch-hunting activists. After forcefully retiring staff from various PSUs, the government plans to privatize most of them, including Indian railways. Activists and critics of the government have been put behind bars. In the name of reforms, more austerity has been introduced, and farmers and workers' rights are being taken away. Meanwhile, unemployment has soared while COVID-19 related restrictions continue. In the U.S., while early epicenters like New York City have seen a sharp decline in new cases, other states, like Texas and Florida, are showing a record number of cases. Trump has remained firm in his anti-lockdown stance and has held a series of controversial campaign rallies in hotspot states. Meanwhile, as protests continue against racism in the country, Trump and his allies have taken to statements and media to vilify protesters and encourage heavy criminalization of those arrested. To date, the U.S. still accounts for the largest number of COVID-19 related deaths, with 137,100, and the number is still rising.