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Originally Posted by ZCanadian
... Yet this was entirely preventable, and the escalation can still be headed off.
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It is not preventable on any realistic level. These "plagues" are going to crop up every now and then. Some people will always be overly optimistic and slow to respond (if they respond at all). Unfortunately, those people are often in charge of the response.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZCanadian
It's impossible to protect people from themselves, but sometimes it has to be better to try.
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Fixed that for ya.
I don't agree that it is necessarily better to try. People should have the right to do with themselves as they see fit. If Mother Nature thinks what they do is wrong, she will handle it.
Of course, when what they do harm to someone else, they should be stopped, but protecting them from themselves is ultimately counter-productive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZCanadian
Were the restrictions in the 5 days following 9/11 justified? Would you have agreed to those beginning the day before that tragedy? I don't think many would object, in hindsight. We have the benefit of seeing what happened in China, Italy, and now Spain. Why volunteer to be next? I think that Einstein had something to say about that :-)
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I'm not saying the US (and other countries) shouldn't be locked down for a while to limit damage - I think that would be a good idea. I was just pointing out that the US legal system does not allow that except in a declared national emergency. We have the emergency, just not the declaration.