The last ten days have not been kind to this point of view.
In Los Angeles and elsewhere in the Golden State, a sense of anger with seemingly contradictory lockdown orders is growing along with virus cases, which are reaching new records across the state. It’s a major reversal of fate for the first U.S. state to impose a lockdown in March, a move hailed as a success that kept the state from experiencing a surge of infections and death like what happened in New York. Following the spring shutdown, California reopened in June — only to enforce new restrictions in July. The state recorded a staggering 53,111 new cases Wednesday and it is practically out of ICU beds. The worsening crisis has led Governor Gavin Newsom to impose a stay-at-home order. While other states have similarly seen infighting, often at the hands of mask skeptics, the latest round of orders from state and local governments are driving a lot of Californians who might otherwise not have strong views on public health politics to question whether their leaders are making good – and fair – decisions. Protests against lockdowns have erupted outside public health officials’ homes and an effort to oust Newsom is strengthening, with half of the 1.5 million petition signatures to put a recall on the ballot already gathered.
Nor, I’d say, to the notion that curfews are proven effective by The Science.