In 2020, Laos successfully contained the spread of COVID-19, with very few cases and no deaths  The key elements of the COVID-19 response reflect not only public health advice but also the core values of the political culture promoted by the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party  These include unity, solidarity, struggle, respect for science, guidance by a strong center, and the extension of the state into everyday life in the form of designated roles, committees, and organizations  These significantly shaped the social fabric drawn on in the COVID-19 response  This success, then, can be read as a reaping of some of the benefits of this political culture  More ominously, the global pandemic exacerbated Lao PDR's public debt crisis  Born of years of government backing of megaprojects such as hydropower, this debt is the dark harvest of the LPRP's reign