It felt like insanity, what if I wanted to send a card in-lieu of going to a gathering? Didn't matter. They weren't going to sell me one.
The armed standoff in Michigan was a direct result of this, Governor Whitmer banned the sale of home improvement goods (such as paint) and garden supplies (including seeds), in the spring, while ordering most of the population to stay at home. This was perceived by the population as unreasonable, and those restrictions were rolled back within a week of the protests.
[1] http://www.wvdnr.gov/2020News/20news020.shtm
[2] https://wdfw.wa.gov/news/wdfw-closes-recreational-fishing-st...
Did they state this reason? If so that's probably close to madness. But it does seem like a product that is frequently handled and returned to the shelves would be a good vector to suspend...
Or such is my observation.
People often do seem much happier when some action is taken, even if they know it's meaningless, so it's not exactly an irrational response on the part of the leadership.
By allowing the gyms to remain open only if they implement a multitude of restrictions based on a tier system seems like the government is intervening with a greater scope. Closing the gym is simple, they have the authority to do that. Telling gyms they cannot run treadmills past 6 km/h and cannot play music faster than 120 bpm seems like a much bigger exercise of power than telling the gyms they can't be open. Was the ability to make such detailed restrictions granted by law? Or only assumed to be allowable in the name of public health?
Does my perspective seem a bit more approachable using that lens?
So you might as well ask "Does the people (i.e. gym owners or partygoers) have too much power?" A compromise means there are two sides.
This is an interesting perspective and helps to explain a little more your original comment.
It seems that your objection is not necessarily the government's authority being excessive but rather too micromanaging? This is a sentiment I think most people can relate too - in our work, we'd rather our boss give us a straight no than make us jump through a dozen hoops and red tape. But in the real world where many different liberties are at stake such as the ability for businesses to make money and citizens to stay healthy, then policing in minutiae could have real tangible benefits.
I'm not saying that I agree with this policy - just trying to highlight your sentiment about not wanting to be micromanaged might be orthogonal to your stated desire not to be oppressed by an overreaching government.
Allowing the gym to remain open with restrictions helps the owner survive until the restrictions can be lifted.
[1] https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/5586611 "거리를 두고 기본적인 방역수칙 외에도 특히 차단해야 되는 부분들에 대한 수칙을 만들기 위해서 애를 썼고, 관련 협회들에서도 그런 측면에서 어떤 것들을 좀 차단시키고 노력하겠다, 라고 제시한 수칙입니다." (Rough translation: In addition to the basic prevention measures like social distancing, we have also tried to make a list of especially required additional measures that the related associations have agreed upon with that context.)
Democracies without explicit limitations on government power too often just become tyranny by the majority.
In theory yes that's what Democracy originally meant.
In practice the "democracies" we know are "government by some group of popular noblemen" not by "its people".
And that’s just the electoral process. Self-government extends far beyond the ballot box.
Usually we mean “mean” when saying “average” because it’s the most common - but not always.
Obviously how well we're managing the pandemic while protecting civil liberty and privacy is a hot political discussion. We managed to keep things mostly under control and prevented total medical system collapse and kept the mortality rate low, while on the other side we didn't put nearly as enough resources into securing the vaccines so we're paying the price now.
SK is having >1k new patients per day now - an exponential growth means you're much closer to "total medical system collapse" than it seems.
People still have their egos and identities attached to this, seeing disagreement as a personal or political attack.
It's going to take awhile for people to go through all the stages of grief about how ineffective and intrusive many of the state interventions during this pandemic really were.
Judging by the number of young, healthy, vaccinated people I still see outdoors in masks, it's still denial for a lot of them.
Perhaps they just came from somewhere indoors and want to have an extra barrier to protect them from unconsciously touching their face.
The reason doesn't really matter.
In this case, the authorities clearly acknowledging the difficulty for businesses, looking for tradeoffs, trying to keep them open while making compromises to at least reduce the risk. But no... Even that's not enough! Everything is black-and-white now: You either have zero restrictions or it's authoritarian overreach.
Just because there are a bunch of unhinged people with crazy ideas doesn't mean all skepticism or discussion around an extremely complex topic is unwarranted or irrational.
I don't understand, I really don't. I anybody can explain, I'd very much appreciate.
South Korea is 329.92 per 100,000 people
California is 9,712.28 per 100,000 people
France is 9,002.09 per 100,000 people
England is 8,004.18 per 100,000 people
Finland is 1,772.60 per 100,000 people
Taiwan, which also was hit hard by SARS... 64.13 per 100,000 people.
These people have already been through respiratory epidemics in their lifetime, and they were prepared.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Middle_East_respiratory_s...
Government response is a critical part of handling these diseases. We just spent a whole year running this experiment globally.
It's also "optics" which is mainly psychological.
Why, you ask? Well I was living in Hawaii during the pandemic, we're Americans, and we had very similar results through the end of June 2020, nearly extirpated the virus in fact.
Unfortunately the US Military couldn't be compelled to follow restrictions, and a huge outbreak in Pearl Harbor escaped containment and ruined all that hard work.
I spent last December in London and saw scant respect for the rules during the second wave. A minority of people wore masks, and few of those wore them properly. I was invited to a few house parties and festive gatherings.
Then I spent January in Paris IIIe where mask compliance was much better, but the streets and supermarkets were heaving before the daily curfew. Squeezing down aisles to buy supplies for dinner. Friends publicly complied with the rules but had big house parties every weekend.
I departed in shock and with an understanding of the European case numbers. There was no discipline, everyone seemed too fed up and bored to care anymore. Abstract anonymous others be damned.
Returning to zeroth world east Asia was a relief. Everyone, and I mean 100% of everyone, wears masks properly.
That originally happened before any official requirement. People go out when there are zero cases, but when a community transmission case happens the streets go quiet for a while, cases disappear, then nearly normal life resumes.
While health might play a part, discipline, a sense of community respect, and a competent administration seem far more important.
Say goodbye to Gangnam Style, treadmill running for next 2 weeks: Some Level 4 distancing rules being called ‘illogical, nonsensical’
"Under Level 4 rules, taking showers within fitness club premises is prohibited and only a limited number of users are allowed in each area at a time.
At the same time, the running speed on treadmills is capped at 6 kilometers per hour. Music played at group exercise classes at fitness clubs cannot exceed 120 beats per minute."
It does look ridiculous, though!
[1] https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1451900/south-korea-vaccinatio...
They are not inflating the numbers, just fulfilling their own promises. The government was pretty much clear in its original plan that it will be initial doses. Initial doses alone do have a positive effect on the reproduction number so this is to be expected.
> We're short on vaccines, which is why the number of people fully vaccinated has stagnated for weeks since June.
If you've got paid and paid your rent in the same week you are not short on money (at least in the common sense), just that your expense is not uniform across weeks. The governmental vaccination plan has been very much non-uniform, partly exaggerated by the fact that SK has a very strong vaccine supply chain and everyone seemingly wants to be vaccinated given a chance.
Sure, the headline sounds ridiculous to my American ears, but I wonder if there is a cultural-specific reason for the music. For example, perhaps synchronized dance is an extremely common exercise class in Korea.
My personal take on gyms would be that well ventilated ones are likely quite safe, but the most are probably not sufficiently well ventilated.
I don’t expect they were doing intense dances or movements at rehearsals.
The danger is simply prolonged exposure in spaces with low air flow.
Edit: I’m not a doctor, I could be wrong.
I hear california is considering banning birthday cakes with more than 5 candles because the wind to blow them out can spread covid
yes please.
meanwhile in LA, at least half the people are still wearing masks outside. whatever floats your boat, but i can't help but shake my head each time. if folks really wanted the mask for more than performative reasons, they'd wear it at home and at friends homes. how many maskers actually did that? probably less than 1%, even though that's where it would have the most effect. waiting for that study, though i don't have high hopes since it'd counter the prevailing mediopolitical narrative.
