What do these four great leaders have to do with Coronavirus?

What do George Washington, Louis XIV, Bismarck and Pharaoh Mena have in common and relevant to our current coronavirus crisis?
Each of these men were leaders in the unification of their country, but along markedly different forms of government. Washington presided over the birth of the United States as a federal republic with largely autonomous states. Otto von Bismarck united the German Bundeslander as a federal republic in 1871. Louis XIV concentrated power in the central government of France; he notoriously said: “L’état, c’est moi.” Egypt, of course, preceded them all: Mena was the first Pharaoh to preside over Upper and Lower Egypt five thousand years ago.
Today, the responses to coronavirus in each of these countries reflects the modes of centralization or decentralization of government established by these early leaders. In the United States, the extreme case of decentralization, the governor of each state, indeed the mayor of each city, can decide what measures to take to fight a pandemic, and when to impose or lift a lockdown. To a lesser extent, the German Bundeslander have considerable autonomy, even though most trust their chancellor enough to follow directives. In France, however, the idea that a municipality or a département might decide not to follow the directives of the Elysée is heresy, and violation of confinement rules anywhere in the country is not tolerated. In Egypt, the central government is traditionally so all powerful that the very notion of autonomous regions is unthinkable.