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Yes, yes, absolutely massive.

Please wear a mask, and please stay home as much as possible. Very onerous. We’ve had lockdowns, but even those generally allow you to go outside for a walk.



If your response is "well, you can generally leave your house to go for a walk" then it isn't really appropriate to respond with sarcasm.

In Australia we've had the army on the streets to enforce the lockdowns. It is pretty undeniable that there have been massive curtailments of freedom, geography dependent.

> Please wear a mask

Again, not sure where you are - but in my experience there haven't been a lot of "please"s. And when there have been it isn't a please-please, it is a I'm-pretending-this-isn't-a-command please. I saw a woman get booted off a tram for not having a mask; the police were certainly not just asking.


In Turkey retirees got busted by police if they left their residence.


Not to be alarmist ( then again when exactly does one sound the alarm !?! ), but the Australian army has been patrolling the streets, making home visits & serving "health-enforcement" notices quite publicly.[1]

Other alleged incidents where Australian law enforcement have used force to detain / arrest rule-violating public outdoors and/or at their homes for as simple a violation as not wearing a mask.[2][3][4][5]

[1] Penrith, Burwood and Rockdale have been put on COVID alert by the NSW Chief Health Officer | 7NEWS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4yv335rykw&t=270s

[2] Footage of NSW Police Breach of Public Health Orders Arrest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h0_w68Uij0

[3] Mask exempted shop owners brutally arrested in Bowral for not wearing a mask.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clQZ-Gnn0bA

[4] Australia - Police brutally arrest a citizen for not wearing a mask

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLqENVI8yp0

[5] Melbourne Police Choke Female Pedestrian for “Not Wearing a Mask”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8vrYlVIZ2U


Prisoners are allowed to go for a walk in the yard too.


You don't consider "you're not allowed in any building other than your own house, the closest grocery store to you, or an emergency room" to be a massive curtailing of freedom? Because a lot of places basically said exactly that.


People that don't mind killing other people to improve their personal comfort usually end up restricted to their cell and the prison's yard, when the issue is correctly framed.

I don't know why people expect this particular case should be any different.


Driving a car is more comfortable than walking, but car crashes kill a lot of people. Let's put everyone who drives cars in prison then too, right?


Coronavirus is a lot more deadly than cars.

If people drive recklessly or intoxicated or without a license etc. they get punished.

Many activities have a chance of causing death. For example taking your family to the beach.

It’s all a complex weighing up of freedoms vs. other freedoms and where societies moral compass seems to be in the current time (and place)


I mean, I don't know how you imagine a better society but in mine there's definitely no cars involved (and I say that as someone who really really enjoys driving)


The average car driver doesn't risk passing a deadly virus to every single other driver they pass that day. Crashes don't kill that many people compared to the number of kilometers driven each day.




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