15 Days to Stop the Spread… One year later
I
t’s March 2021. We have been living within some sort of COVID-19 affected reality for one year. In some ways it feels like this started just a few months ago; in other ways, it’s hard to remember life before the pandemic.
If we rewind just one year — before 500,000 COVID-related deaths and at least 100,000 permanent business closures due to erratic government mandates and economic depression — what we see is quite tragic given our current state of living. Leading up to and in the first week of March 2020, Americans were told if they wanted a test they could get a test (wasn’t true), that the tests were “perfect” (they weren’t), and that in a couple days the case number would be “close to zero” (if only). Whiplash hit when a national emergency was declared, and March 16, 2020 brought for the first time, “15 Days to Stop the Spread.”
Fifteen days.
It’s heartbreaking to think what has come simply from throwing the government at the problem of a dangerous virus. The truth is that no lockdowns, no social distancing, and no obsession with or denial of the pandemic would have ever stopped it from taking many American lives. Without utterly stopping anyone from leaving their homes for likely more than 15 days, this virus was going to spread. While we could have been better prepared or we could have had leaders who were more concerned with facts than the fear they use to win elections, we had no power to stop COVID-19 from spreading.
By the end of March 2020 more than 30 states had imposed general “stay-at-home” orders. When those didn’t work, further shutdowns, mask and social distancing mandates, school closures, and a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package were employed as 22 American deaths became 10,000 in less than 30 days.
Unintended consequences are par for the course when it comes to expanded government action. While we have continued to track the effects of COVID-19, what is harde
Article from Libertarian Party
