Stipulate that the current crop of names all have noble intent. Not taking swipes at anyone in view.
You've no guarantees of such going forward.
The current situation is Checkov's Gun[1]. At some point, if we don't enjoy a collective think on where this is going, there will be dismay.
Nothing new there, beaurocrats and public health officials have long had the power to make highly consequential decisions for large numbers of people.
Yes we could do with some debate about the power they exercise and about how to handle the next pandemic, and there will be a next pandemic. However your dramatic tone is unwarranted and unhelpful.
I'll yield on the kind, but the degree with the Covid is off the charts for peacetime action.
Was this wise? Were the across-the-board outcomes worth it?
Those who made the decisions may be biased in their reflections on the matter.
Actually, no. This is exactly the level of heavy handed, indiscriminate beaurocratic/government control that poorer people have always had to deal with - see for example how large scale city planning has tended to distribute its most disruptive consequences among the poorest neighbourhoods, or how public health systems have judged most harshly and intruded most forcefully into the lives of the poorest.
So again, nothing new. The only new thing is that middle class and wealthy people - such as you and I - suddenly experience this and react in shock.
> Were the across-the-board outcomes worth it?
Lives saved, lives disrupted, jobs lost... I don't know.It's a complex calculus, requiring a dispassionate and objective inquiry, which you clearly are not in a position to make
> Those who made the decisions may be biased in their reflections on the matter
Whatever
Once again: kind, not degree. Short of wartime mobilization, there just aren't examples of bureaucrats ordering wrenching economic changes on this scale.
1. What's the horrifying precedent? 2. Assuming we can another pandemic one day which is more severe, how would you handle restrictions to protect public health - assuming you would at all?
(I think a lot of the debate around Covid stems from the unfortunate fact that it's too severe to ignore but not severe enough to get everyone on the same page. I can respect "we didn't need to this time" but I'm curious about people who argue "we should never do this")