I suppose it really isn't that surprising, people who live in densely populated areas tend to lean more liberal/socialist, and those areas by their very nature of people living in close proximity also have the highest infection rate.
Look at the New York City area. I've visited there, at one point I contemplated moving there, but I like solitude, and in order to find an affordable house with a yard someone is looking at commuting two hours if they work in the city. Commuting by car just isn't feasible, rent on a parking spot is $1,200 a month, as much as people in other parts of the country pay for an apartment. People simply do not drive to work in New York City. So yes, closing businesses and sending people home makes a lot of sense. Even taking these measures New York and New Jersey lead the nation in deaths representing half of the deaths nationally.
I'm usually a proponent of mass transportation, this crisis has changed my mind slightly. I still think there needs to be "personal rail" where people can get in their own car, and it will join up with other cars at stations to form "trains" but that's a blog for another day.
One of the surprising things about the numbers on worldometers is that China and India are not seeing a lot of cases. Here are two densely populated nations that are way down the list of infections. I'm pretty sure these numbers aren't accurate, the office that I work with in India has had two cases... conspiracy theories aside, I my theory is that lack of access to healthcare means that people get infected, recover, and it goes unreported.
As I've said in other posts, "What works in one part of the country does not work in others.". Shut down the NYC Subway system? You bet. Stop packing people into arena's and theaters for sporting events and concerts? Yup. We live in a digital age, there's no reason why regular events can't still occur and be broadcast, just limit "seeing it live". Yes, I know this opens the door to professional sports teams infecting each other, but really, these are athletes, the chance of them ending up in an intensive care unit is pretty minimal, and there are a lot of sailors in the Navy stuck in close proximity making a whole lot less.
Wyoming has 586 cases and 7 deaths, Alaska 368/9, Montana 455/16... those states probably had more deaths from wildlife encounters last year (I'm not going to bother looking up the numbers on those, you see my point).
Honestly, I believe people should stay home. Not because of COVID-19, but because I personally don't like crowds. I'm happiest going to the grocery store at midnight on a Wednesday and having the place to myself with the restock crew. Going to the mall is not high on my priority list, I'd much rather shop Amazon and eBay from the comfort of my home.
Which leads me to my point.
I don't have the right to tell people what to do.
First Amendment of the Bill of rights:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.Now I suppose there's a bit of grey area here, Congress hasn't made any laws. We just have a bunch of Governors, and Mayors on power trips, backed up by Police and Judges that have forgotten their oath of office:
To uphold the constitution of the United States.
I guess that doesn't mean anything anymore. There's even a significant demographic of the population that's applauding them.
Funny thing though, once you've let that cat out of the bag where is the new limit to this power? Oh this isn't really anything new, we know all about the Japanese internment camps of WWII, the forced relocation of Native Americans but those were done in the name of security during war, this is a highly contagious disease that kills people, it's different... right? Not Necessarily. HIV/AIDS has killed 25-35 Million people since 1981. In order to find a pandemic more deadly you have to go back to 1520... smallpox (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/).
Gay/Bisexual/transgender are the most at risk for contracting HIV, and 1 in 7 don't know they have it (https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/about-hiv-and-aids/who-is-at-risk-for-hiv). By the same logic that we're using to quarantine people for COVID-19, the transgender community is a prime candidate for quarantine. After all, the people who typically support trans rights are in favor of the quarantine, and the people opposed to the quarantine don't want transgender people using "the wrong bathroom".
Be careful about giving up your rights, and/or curtailing the rights of others. I'm all in favor of leadership offering recommendations, but it's up to "We the People" to individually decide if we want to follow those recommendations and/or give our business to those that don't. The government should step in when a company that is the only option refuses to follow recommendations, but that involvement should include anti-trust lawsuit, and providing other options temporarily. Again, only in cases where a company is the only option. I.e. if there is only one grocery store in town and that grocery store refuses to take special measures to keep it clean, the government should step in and supply a different option for the residents of that area until competition can be brought into the area.
For the record, even though I'm taking this seriously and going out less, it's my opinion that this has been blown way out of proportion. 252,758 deaths worldwide (517 new deaths today) compared to other causes of death:
- 582,373 from HIV/AIDS
- 2,845,226 from cancer
- 371,497 from suicide
- 2,633,265 children under 5 years old
- 339,813 from malaria
- 866,469 by alcohol
- 1,731,853 from smoking
- 467,656 traffic accidents
Death is an inevitable part of life. The amount of resources we're throwing at this... we could use some of that energy elsewhere.
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