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The risk of dying from Covid-19 is significantly higher in countries with populist governments. A study by an international team of researchers found that populist governments have handled the crisis worse than non-populist governments.

The researchers analyzed the excess deaths in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. They found that excess mortality was, on average, more than twice as high in populist-governed countries as in non-populist-governed countries.

Before the pandemic, the so-called populist wave swept through many countries, when radical and anti-establishment leaders came to power.

Populism is defined in the study as an ideology that sees society as divided into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups: the pure people versus the corrupt elite, and that politics should be the expression of the "general will of the people".

Of the 42 countries included in the analysis, 11 were classified as populist-run in 2020: the US, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the UK, India, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, and Turkey. Countries that were considered non-populist included Japan, Canada, and Sweden.

The researchers found that for every 100 expected deaths in non-populist countries, Covid caused an additional 8 deaths. But in populist-led countries, Covid has resulted in an additional 18 deaths for every 100 non-Covid deaths.

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