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A comment on No excess deaths in Sweden compared to the last ten years. Parent comment

Re:No excess deaths in Sweden compared to the last ten years by pessimizer on Monday November 16, 2020 @08:59PM (#25119527)
> If you insist that the difference between "lockdown" and "no lockdown" is whether the authorities back their restrictions with legal authority, it makes the term "lockdown" meaningless and you should stop talking about it.

You've explained a pretty clear and meaningful distinction. You may not think it is important, but it has a meaning. I'm saying this as someone who supports authorities backing their restrictions with legal authority and vigorous enforcement.

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Re:No excess deaths in Sweden compared to the last ten years by roca on Monday November 16, 2020 @09:35PM (#25119721)
That's fair, but the distinction does get blurry. In Auckland over time we have had:

1. Government suggesting that wearing masks on public transport would be good

2. Government asking everyone to wear masks on public transport

3. Government issuing a legally backed health order requiring everyone to wear masks on public transport, but saying police will take an "educative approach", i.e. no actual enforcement

4. Government legally requiring everyone to wear masks and the police actually enforcing it a little bit but mostly not

Theoretically we could have

5. Government enforcing mask usage rigorously.

Apparently some people think that at some point we crossed a line that was really important, but was it #3, #4, or #5, and why?

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Re:No excess deaths in Sweden compared to the last ten years by zepto on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @09:46AM (#25124263)
When a word has a range of meanings and people aren’t sure precisely what someone else means, they ask questions to find out what their interlocutor is referring to.

Perhaps if you are leading an organization or have some legal authority, you can insist on a precise definition to be used in a particular context, but in general public discourse, attempts to do that are typically ineffective.

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