# Revisiting covid denial and covid restrictions **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 13, 2024, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932 "2024-03-13T20:32:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/161 "2024-03-17T15:50:09Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > > > I do recall hearing people were only to be allowed outside alone for an hour. > > I call BS. More charitably, i call bad memory. Because i agree, I’m pretty certain no one in the US was told they weren’t allowed outdoors alone. I think i heard maybe it was a thing in Portugal? Spain? And China had very severe lockdowns. But most of the US isn’t very crowded and there was never a time when it made sense to tell Americans not to go outdoors. (And, related, no US authority ever issued that guidance, let alone tried to enforce it.) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/162 "2024-03-17T15:50:59Z")
DeWine went after some businesses for not adhering, but I don’t see much else. As I recall from Ohio family and friends, by mid-May, most restrictions were removed. So, maybe 6 weeks of being asked to stay at home at night? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/163 "2024-03-17T16:02:42Z")
I had scheduled yard work (taking down a precarious tree) on the day covid restrictions were announced in my state. The tree people called me and said they couldn’t come because they weren’t sure it was legal for them to do so. A week later, they called back and said they had received clarification, they were an essential business and had minimal restrictions, but they were fully booked so it would be a while before they could get to me. So, there was a short period of confusion when folks weren’t certain what the rules were, and perhaps were overly cautious. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/164 "2024-03-17T17:27:05Z")
I’m germy-freaked-out in public now. Always have been. I totally wished the restrictions had been more vigorously enforced during the beginning. If our leaders had been more clear and truthful it might have been easier. They got to get better at this. I wanna see concise guidance from the Feds down. With repercussion added. Pandemics will happen again. These are just my thoughts. I hate to give up freedoms too. I’m ok if it’s for health and welfare. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/165 "2024-03-17T17:53:04Z")
This thread reminded me of all the closings and restrictions when COVID was at its peak. Everyone was masked, stores either had strictly limited occupancy or were off limits entirely and only had curbside pickup, restaurants and bars were closed, there was a wait list for vaccinations, and good luck being able to get hand sanitizer. There was usually a lineup outside the liquor store, and customers were let in one or two at a time as others left. And of course early on there was the Great Toilet Paper Shortage. And what a horrible time to work in a hospital, or in any health care capacity! ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/166 "2024-03-17T19:26:02Z")
A future dictatorship is counting on that. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/167 "2024-03-17T19:38:03Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > So, there was a short period of confusion when folks weren’t certain what the rules were, and perhaps were overly cautious. I think those were outnumbered by those that deliberately threw caution to the wind. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/168 "2024-03-17T19:53:21Z")
And, so many deaths had to happen. For what? Fear you might not be able to go to a bar, a movie or walk down a Street. Such important pursuits. How about fear of death to you or yours and innocent people? Fear the medical community will lose control, completely? Fear the viruses will super mutate in a much more horrible outcome? Fear it will affect children more than it did? To be able to party it up. Not me. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/169 "2024-03-17T20:00:44Z")
Too many politicians pandered to a ready self-centered audience. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/170 "2024-03-17T20:04:04Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > And of course early on there was the Great Toilet Paper Shortage Do we know where that particular bugaboo originated? ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/171 "2024-03-17T20:09:19Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I believe a few places in the world had such requirements, even for people with no symptoms. I’d be really surprised if all of Ohio had them. I suspect you’re thinking of a report you read about somewhere else entirely, and have it confused in your mind with your own experience. Yes, this. I researched (including [this Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_lockdowns_by_country)), and the only places I could find with a one-hour limit on being outdoors were Australia and France, and Australia only implemented it in the second wave. There was no such restriction in the US. On a side note, Russia ordered pet owners to walk their dogs no more than 100 meters, and S. Africa wouldn’t let owners walk their pets at all except in their yards or around their buildings. I called the lockdown the Golden Age of Dogs. Their people were home! They got lots of walks! I guess not so much in Russia and South Africa. . ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/172 "2024-03-17T20:16:55Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do we know where that particular bugaboo originated? AFAIK, it was just part of the general supply chain disruption. It just happened to be a commodity whose absence was particularly noticeable. You couldn’t get hand sanitizer if your life depended on it, either, or, for a time, liquid soap, latex gloves, or even masks. I think it was all related to the supply chain. I fortunately never had a TP shortage because I’m oddly obsessive about keeping the otherwise empty cupboards in the guest bathroom stuffed with packages of TP, which indeed they were when COVID hit. Another COVID memory is walking out of a supermarket with a huge package of toilet paper and some woman going in asking if there were any left. This was somewhat later in the pandemic, and she was ecstatic when I said there were many shelf-fulls of them. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/173 "2024-03-17T20:18:28Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > A future dictatorship is counting on that. If people do what they’re told by those in authority, we’re all gonna be living under a tyrannical dictatorship; and if they don’t, we’re all gonna be living in anarchy until we die of the plague. So either way, we’re screwed. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/174 "2024-03-17T20:27:21Z")
The chance of the latter is much greater than the chance of the former. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/175 "2024-03-17T21:06:34Z")
I’m sure there were people in London who didn’t wanna black out their windows during the Blitz. I know there are people who won’t get out of mobile homes when tornadoes are coming. Or evacuate when storm surge will hit your beach front home. Sometimes it’s best to follow some self preservation guidelines for obvious reasons. Like living. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/176 "2024-03-17T21:10:56Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > A future dictatorship is counting on that. Like if the flu pandemic of 1918 and the health mandates of then never took place. > **[When Mask-Wearing Rules in the 1918 Pandemic Faced Resistance | HISTORY](https://www.history.com/news/1918-spanish-flu-mask-wearing-resistance)** > > Most people complied, but some resisted (or poked holes in their masks to smoke). > San Francisco’s first masking order began in October and ended in November after the World War I armistice. In January, when flu cases began to surge again in San Francisco, the city implemented a second mask order. This time, the resistance was much more intense. A group of dissenters that included a few physicians and one member of the Board of Supervisors formed the “Anti-Mask League,” which held a public meeting with over 2,000 attendees. > > Navarro speculates the resistance to San Francisco’s second mask order may have been more intense because the country was no longer at war, and some residents didn’t feel the same sense of patriotic duty they had before. In any case, the city was an outlier. It doesn’t appear that there were similar leagues or protests in other cities. > > [Nancy Tomes](https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/history/people/faculty/tomes.html), a distinguished professor of history at Stony Brook University who has [written about](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862334/) public health measures during the 1918-1919 flu pandemic says while there were pockets of resistance to mask-wearing in 1918 and 1919, it was not widespread. > > And, unlike handkerchiefs and paper tissues, which Tomes says people began to use more regularly because of the pandemic, mask-wearing did not catch on in the United States after the ordinances ended. It’s still difficult to say how effective mask-wearing on its own was in 1918 and 1919. What is clear is that communities that implemented stronger health measures overall fared better than those that didn’t. The point here is that… No, dictatorships don’t come from health mandates. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/177 "2024-03-17T21:13:04Z")
At a convention event I am vice-chairing we are encouraging people to mask, but we will kick people out if they hassle people who mask up. We found this to be necessary due to past experience. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/178 "2024-03-18T00:04:18Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > A future dictatorship is counting on that. ⁢ Not really. If you look at actual dictatorships, they don’t tend to claim health issues when they don’t exist. It may work in the very short term, but it fails as people don’t actually see the disease. What you should be wary of are people who use public health issues or other things to convince you that you are oppressed, only to promise they will be your savior. All you have to do is let them take control. It’s ridiculous how many wannabe dictators use a desire for freedom to get you to submit to them. There are Americans who both cry out about a lack of freedom, while saying they’d be okay with a certain politician being a dictator. You’d think they’d see the contradiction, but they often don’t. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/179 "2024-03-18T00:11:41Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > And of course early on there was the Great Toilet Paper Shortage > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do we know where that particular bugaboo originated? Self-fulfilling prophecy. People rushed out to stock up because they heard that there could be shortages, and so there were shortages. Then the supply chain couldn’t keep up in the beginning. Just like in 1973 when Johnny Carson first made a joke about a toilet paper shortage, and caused the first one. > **[Remembering the great toilet paper shortage of 1973](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/remembering-the-great-toilet-paper-shortage-of-1973/)** > > A joke by late-night king Johnny Carson about a shortage of toilet tissue led to panic buying as Americans emptied store shelves of the prized commodity ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932/180 "2024-03-18T00:14:23Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > A future dictatorship is counting on that Do you think that in the beginning of the pandemic, when people were dropping like flies, the response was overblown? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932.md?page=10)