By Nick Gillespie | Reason
The government botched the early response to coronavirus, so why expect it to grow in competence now?
“Shelter in place” laws telling residents to stay in their homes whenever possible are sweeping the country, making it clear that public health concerns—as opposed to worries about staving off economic collapse—have carried the day when it comes to responding to the coronavirus. That’s a decision we will come to rue as a nation, since a disease’s direct death rate is not the only factor to be considered in responding to it.
On Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, the state with the country’s highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, embodied this decision. During a press conference in which he laid out strict orders for the state’s nearly 20 million residents to stay out of parks and offices, he called out New Yorkers who contravened his orders. “It’s insensitive, it’s arrogant, it’s self-destructive, it’s disrespectful to other people and it has to stop….This is not a joke, and I am not kidding.”
