I would submit that leadership has little to no bearing on the infection rate of Covid but rather it's the abysmal stupidity of the populace that's the issue.
Michigan had some of, if not the most, restrictive Covid containment policies of any state and they were working. Unfortunately the population took issue with the working measures and had them lifted by court order. The infection and fatality rates are now as high or higher than at any time since the pandemic began because the masses have decided they're going to do damn well what they want rather than what they know works.
The problem is not with the head of the dog but with the tail.
Claiming that leadership has no bearing on managing the COVID pandemic seems a lame, incorrect, cop-out answer. You could make the same claim that leadership has no bearing on the public response to any natural disaster, war or public crisis but it wouldn't be true.
While you do have angry, highly partisan armed extremist militimen invading your Statehouse displaying swastikas and hangman's nooses and now other criminal domestic terrorist fanatics planning to kidnap and possibly murder your Governor because they disagree with her efforts to ameliorate the problem, Michigan is a particularly appalling example of what happens when extreme partisan politics reach the stage where people act out like that and ignore common sense public health measures during a health emergency.
Here in Vermont we've had superb leadership during the pandemic from our Republican Governor and his bipartisan team of public officials and experts. While not everyone is always in agreement we have a tradition here in Vermont of cooperation for the public good during a crisis or natural disaster and people have responded well to clear, calm, measured guidance from our state leaders. Across the political spectrum Governor Scott and his team have received accolades for their mature, open, measured, logical responses to the crisis, their adherence to the scientific facts, their flexibility to adjusting course when new facts and periodic spikes present themselves, their planning and anticipation of futures events, their overall open and supportive guidance to the public and their absolute refusal to allow politics to enter into the equation. Even during a hotly contested election season
Governor Phil Scott has declined to campaign, instead claiming to be focusing his efforts on the pandemic response which as he has explained in detail are rather complex. Just today he released the state's plan for distributing a vaccine to the public which is now in place among the various responsible state agencies and ready for whenever a vaccine becomes available along with clear priorities for who will receive the vaccine first. One of his criteria for approval of the public release of a vaccine is that it must be "absolutely free from politics".
People respond well to this kind of leadership and the result has been that our infection rate and death rate is one of the lowest in the nation. Good leadership does make a difference.
We see this to a large degree around the world. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand is a shinning example, as is Angela Merkel of Germany (a scientist) and Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, who has presided over one of the most successful efforts in the world at containing the virus.
It is in fact the divisive
"leadership" we see from Donald Trump and his ilk that foments the shocking and destructive behaviors we are witnessing in Michigan and elsewhere around the country. When you have a Republican President of the United States encouraging his followers to chant "Lock Her Up" as he has with Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer (as he also did with Hillary Clinton and others) and to vilify her efforts to protect the public during a health emergency because he sees her as a political opponent it leads to the appalling partisan and outright criminal and dangerous behaviors we have witnessed in Michigan. Leadership does indeed matter, especially during an infectious disease crisis and poor leadership is a disservice to American citizens under any circumstances. It doesn't have to be this way.
Here in the tiny town I'm currently living in most of the people work and do a lot of shopping in one of the nearby larger cities where the disease has far higher numbers, yet as best I can tell almost nobody in this small town has had it 
