The coronavirus pandemic has revived an old nostrum: Totalitarians perform better in devastating times than democracies. Not so—the cure is worse than the catastrophe.

Move over Ebola. A plague outbreak in Madagascar has gone pneumonic, meaning that it’s capable of being spread by coughing.

US leadership and innovation over the past 12 years has helped reduce the death rate from malaria among children under five by 51 percent. The mass production of life-saving technologies at affordable prices is beating back one of humanity’s oldest and costliest diseases.