Resist The Authoritarian Response To The Coronavirus

[Skill and Chance]

I don't usually say things like this, but those of you decrying the "authoritarian" response are nuts.

Give the government control to totally shut down your social life, keep you indoors, etc and good luck ever putting that back into its box.  Our freedoms are a lot more important than a virus with a 2% fataility rate.  Sorry, I said it.  I mean it.

 
Would you support doing this for something as deadly as smallpox (>20% fatality rate, overwhelming majority of population likely to be infected if no action taken)?  For something like the 1300's Black Death (>50% total fatality rate, 30-60% for more common bubonic type, >90% for less common pneumonic type, also likely to spread throughout the population)?  Or not at all?

[Skill and Chance]

I am hopeful we can switch to more intermediate measures in 2-3 months.  Hopefully there is a middle ground even if normal life can't return until there's a vaccine.

[Skill and Chance]

Nobody is seriously talking about a 18-month lockdown. That would obviously be unenforceable as well as being, yes, more economically ruinous than our society can reasonably afford.

The virus will probably stay with us for 18 months or longer, but what we're trying to do here is get through the peak of the infection, and do so gradually enough that hospitals aren't overwhelmed. There are many estimates of how long that will take, but to my knowledge it shouldn't be more than a couple months.

However, for it to actually work, we need to go on lockdown right now. This means people need to quit being babies or LARPing as brave rebels, suck it up, and stay home for a few months. It also means the state should provide immediate economic relief to everyone who needs it. If we're actually serious enough to do this thing, we'll be able to go back to our daily lives soon and minimize deaths as much as possible. If not, then whatever happens next is something we'll have brought onto ourselves.

“Stay home for a few months”.

Really, really privileged quote there Anthony.  People CANNOT stay home for a few months.  They will die,  in far far greater numbers than you can ever imagine.  We will have mass starvation and civil unrest.  You may be above to stay home for a few months, and good for you.  By all means do so if you feel it necessary.

There is a middle ground that would involve temperature checks at the entrances to the reopened local service businesses and better spaced seating, while the international flights and conferences stay cancelled/virtual until we have a vaccine.

[Skill and Chance]

Nobody is seriously talking about a 18-month lockdown. That would obviously be unenforceable as well as being, yes, more economically ruinous than our society can reasonably afford.

The virus will probably stay with us for 18 months or longer, but what we're trying to do here is get through the peak of the infection, and do so gradually enough that hospitals aren't overwhelmed. There are many estimates of how long that will take, but to my knowledge it shouldn't be more than a couple months.

However, for it to actually work, we need to go on lockdown right now. This means people need to quit being babies or LARPing as brave rebels, suck it up, and stay home for a few months. It also means the state should provide immediate economic relief to everyone who needs it. If we're actually serious enough to do this thing, we'll be able to go back to our daily lives soon and minimize deaths as much as possible. If not, then whatever happens next is something we'll have brought onto ourselves.

“Stay home for a few months”.

Really, really privileged quote there Anthony.  People CANNOT stay home for a few months.  They will die,  in far far greater numbers than you can ever imagine.  We will have mass starvation and civil unrest.  You may be able to stay home for a few months, and good for you.  By all means do so if you feel it necessary.

And btw we have a bill of rights, including freedom of religion. Good luck trying to stop people from attending services for months on end.  It won’t happen.  I will be back in the Church soon, as will many others.

Even in Wuhan, grocery stores were open, so please stop playing this game.
As for your church, I don’t think god wants you to willingly infect people and violate common sense measures, but you are free to believe otherwise.  However, I will tell you this, you aren’t special, you are a part of a larger problem and the rules apply to you, even if you don’t like it. Your self comfort isn’t more important than thousands of lives. People who willingly resist social distancing ought to be fined and recorded for later (because arrests right now are problematic)

It is definitely, definitely not going to be constitutional to forcibly close a church.  Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of churches have already gone to virtual services voluntarily.

[Skill and Chance]

Nobody is seriously talking about a 18-month lockdown. That would obviously be unenforceable as well as being, yes, more economically ruinous than our society can reasonably afford.

The virus will probably stay with us for 18 months or longer, but what we're trying to do here is get through the peak of the infection, and do so gradually enough that hospitals aren't overwhelmed. There are many estimates of how long that will take, but to my knowledge it shouldn't be more than a couple months.

However, for it to actually work, we need to go on lockdown right now. This means people need to quit being babies or LARPing as brave rebels, suck it up, and stay home for a few months. It also means the state should provide immediate economic relief to everyone who needs it. If we're actually serious enough to do this thing, we'll be able to go back to our daily lives soon and minimize deaths as much as possible. If not, then whatever happens next is something we'll have brought onto ourselves.

“Stay home for a few months”.

Really, really privileged quote there Anthony.  People CANNOT stay home for a few months.  They will die,  in far far greater numbers than you can ever imagine.  We will have mass starvation and civil unrest.  You may be able to stay home for a few months, and good for you.  By all means do so if you feel it necessary.

And btw we have a bill of rights, including freedom of religion. Good luck trying to stop people from attending services for months on end.  It won’t happen.  I will be back in the Church soon, as will many others.

Even in Wuhan, grocery stores were open, so please stop playing this game.
As for your church, I don’t think god wants you to willingly infect people and violate common sense measures, but you are free to believe otherwise.  However, I will tell you this, you aren’t special, you are a part of a larger problem and the rules apply to you, even if you don’t like it. Your self comfort isn’t more important than thousands of lives. People who willingly resist social distancing ought to be fined and recorded for later (because arrests right now are problematic)

It is definitely, definitely not going to be constitutional to forcibly close a church.  Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of churches have already gone to virtual services voluntarily.

If the churches can't be CLOSED, they can certainly be forbidden from hosting gatherings of 10+ people inside of one building during a pandemic.

Compliance has already been high enough this shouldn't be an issue.  If it becomes an issue, potentially more could be done with fewer constitutional issues after a parishioner is confirmed to have the disease.

[Skill and Chance]

You all being total nutjobs on your 18 month total lockdown is going to push a lot of people towards voting for Trump who wouldn't otherwise

Nobody wants an "18 month total lockdown"!  That is insane.  Even if this was Black Death 2, more people would die of starvation/anxiety by the end of that.  But people should be psychologically prepared for long slog with possibly several more 0.5-2 month intervals of social distancing as needed in different localities and that normal life will not fully return nationwide until there is a vaccine sometime in 2021.

You know people didn't have to stay in bomb shelters continuously in London for the duration of the Blitz, right?  They went in periodically as the raids happened, then came back out.