Personal Freedoms/Choices & Public Health Measures

I expect they try to balance the risks and rewards.

I do note the schools in Atlanta do not close because it is snowing in Poughkeepsie. Conditions vary from one area to another, so a national one-size-fits-all strategy would not be appropriate.

Back when I was working, one of the things I did was do reliability studies for electric power systems. I balanced how much generating capacity should be built to avoid blackouts during times of high demand. The cost of more capacity was weighed against the value in avoided blackouts.

Weather conditions, yes. It’s never snowing everywhere. Unfortunately, COVID doesn’t discriminate, even if population density plays a part in spread.

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And without testing and contact tracing, New York is the same as Georgia, as is being proved out.

Laura,
Some area have no cases and others have many. To treat them all the same seems irresponsible.

Do you think every area of the world should have mandatory the stringent requirements most appropriate for the worst infected area of the planet? To take extremes, should the requirements be the same in the most infected part of Miami and the Antarctica science lab? (I could have said International Space Station, but it is not on the planet.)

Only seems. Without testing and contact tracing, we don’t know until it’s too late.

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We are talking about open free society where not all people will voluntarily wear masks or even (or especially) socially distance themselves, not some protected or other hypothetical bubbles.

Many businesses, managers or supervisors also will not comply voluntarily, and need to be forced to comply or be shut down.

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I am not sure what you mean, Dale.

Do you mean that ā€œall peopleā€ will not wear masks, meaning no person wears a mask?

Or do you mean that most people wear masks, but 1 in 1000 will refuse?

Or do you mean something else?

Edit: Oh, I see you edited your post after my question.

Ok, it sounds like your plan is to force businesses to enforce regulations or the government locks their doors. That seems to be the Michigan governor’s plan, to force businesses to be enforcement agents. Perhaps they can be drafted and forced into the military for this service. Forcing them to be law enforcement officers and do it without due process and compensation seems unconstitutional and wrong.

I wonder, should the Burger King employees be given the uncompensated responsibility to arrest people who don’t wear masks? Is that your proposal?

I don’t have trouble changing an opinion when conditions change and new information is available.

And things are quite different now than they were in mid-May.

Yes, out of control. Masks and social distancing mandated early would have prevented it. The falsely promised availability of testing as well as contact tracing would have helped prevent morgue and mortuary overflow into refrigerated trucks, as well.

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It is difficult for me to imagine anything more out of control than your plan:

Making store employees government enforcement agents without compensation or training seems very strange.

Of their own employees? That is done all the time. The FDA, OSHA? Local health department regulations and code compliance? Employers do that routinely. What is strange is that you don’t recognize that.

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Employees do not routinely enforce laws and arrest customers.

Certainly not retail clerks and the high school kid at the counter in Burger King.

Strange that you would support such a plan.

But if you have owned a small business, so know that that is what the government does. It adds regulatory burdens and mandates without compensation all the time, whether you be a medical doctor in practice as I was or a plumber, or a baker. The burden usually falls hardest on small business, as they do not have the resources to spend.

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Phil, they don’t make the clerks enforce laws broken by customers.

That is quite dangerous.

That is why it needs to be a loud and clear government mandate, so that customers know that it is not the local business making their own rules. Butt too little too late.

I expect it is now and will be, but it needn’t have been, with a clear government mandate and law enforcement involvement.

Australia in not backwards country, and they are showing us up, as have many others.

I am confused about your position, Dale

Is the high schooler at the counter at Burger King supposed to enforce the law or not?

Is she only obligated to say please put on a mask or must she arrest the person or throw the person out of the business?

You do not understand what a clear government mandate would do, apparently.

How would a clear government mandate protect the high schooler in Burger King whom you would require to enforce the laws when an old biker comes in for a Whopper without a mask?