# The quarantine **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 16, 2014, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480 "2014-10-16T11:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Boogly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Boogly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boogly)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/21 "2014-10-16T15:50:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Meaningful discussions of morality _require_ fighting the hypothetical. A great deal of immorality in the world has been committed by people who refused to consider alternate options. Discussions should require a hypothetical. However at a specific point and time if you have an instant to require a shoot/no shoot decision there is a distinct lack of alternatives other than shoot or no-shoot. No plan survives contact with the enemy. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/22 "2014-10-16T16:00:22Z")
Hmm…interesting. Having voted I glanced at the results. Overwhelmingly people voted the soldier would shoot instead of doing something else. As an outsider I can only observe this is a very American response to a complex human problem. And it says much about your cultural indoctrination. It certainly explains the police escalation to shooting in Ferguson and other events in the past few weeks, You really do live in a society where shoot first and ask later is the rule de jour. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/23 "2014-10-16T16:12:16Z")
I am staying in the quarantine if the civilian, and opening fire to kill if I’m a soldier. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/24 "2014-10-16T16:14:44Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > this is a very American response to a complex human problem. And it says much about your cultural indoctrination. > > It certainly explains the police escalation to shooting in Ferguson and other events in the past few weeks, You really do live in a society where shoot first and ask later is the rule de jour. Except that Ferguson didn’t have the potential for thousands to die of HAE if the kill shot was \*\*not \*\*fired. Extremely different situation. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/25 "2014-10-16T16:19:53Z")
An airborne virus with a 50% mortality rate? That could spread like wildfire. Quicker, given fast transportaion (planes, trains, automobiles). That’s worse than the Spanish Flu, and that took 50-100 _million_ lives. We do whatever we have to do to keep it from spreading, including nuking Frederick , MA from space. Yes, I am aware I would one of the ones to die there. Sacrifice 70,000 lives to save half a _billion_ lives? Yes. The hypothetical doesn’t say but hints that that we _created_ it. Obviously, heads elsewhere will have to roll as well. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/26 "2014-10-16T16:28:59Z")
Frederick, MA?? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/27 "2014-10-16T16:34:50Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > As an outsider I can only observe this is a very American response to a complex human problem. Thank you. We Americans pride ourselves in our compassionate respect for humanity, and our willingness to make hard choices in the face of global danger. The rest of your post is bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/28 "2014-10-16T16:50:42Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > Yes and yes. If I am in a location with a highly communicative disease that takes up to three weeks to develop symptoms, I have no way of knowing if I’ve contracted it at the time that escape is an option. I would feel a duty to remain within the quarantine boundaries. > > Yes, if my orders are to kill anyone who breaches the boundaries and this lone figure has not responded to verbal warning or a warning shot, I’d feel duty-bound to kill him or her. This^ I’m someone who tends to follow directions. Too much is at stake to defy orders. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/29 "2014-10-16T16:53:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Meaningful discussions of morality _require_ fighting the hypothetical. A great deal of immorality in the world has been committed by people who refused to consider alternate options. That was my first thought also but in a situation such as this we would have no time to formulate a plan beyond quarantine as at least a first step while we were planning. I think making air drops of supplies and things needed to protect ourselves with might help to alleviate panic within the quarantine zone. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/30 "2014-10-16T17:01:07Z")
I haven’t trusted those NBC suits since they cancelled “Community.” ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/31 "2014-10-16T17:07:47Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Hmm…interesting. Having voted I glanced at the results. > > Overwhelmingly people voted the soldier would shoot instead of doing something else. > > As an outsider I can only observe this is a very American response to a complex human problem. And it says much about your cultural indoctrination. > > It certainly explains the police escalation to shooting in Ferguson and other events in the past few weeks, You really do live in a society where shoot first and ask later is the rule de jour. Well I’m not American either and I vote (a) stay put and (b) shoot them. But then I am from Northern Ireland, though we tend to blow things up rather than shoot them. Seriously though, without needlessly fighting the hypothetical what do you suggest instead? ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/32 "2014-10-16T18:39:18Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Thank you. We Americans pride ourselves in our compassionate respect for humanity, and our willingness to make hard choices in the face of global danger. > > The rest of your post is bullshit. This. ALSO, in this scenario, no one is “shooting first and asking questions later,” dude – the scenario specifies that the person intending to breach the perimeter has been given two significant chances to change their mind/stop/run away/explain themselves, and they have ignored those chances and are determined to escape and put the lives of millions at risk as a consequence. This person must be stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Boogly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Boogly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boogly)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/33 "2014-10-16T19:03:29Z")
This is about morality and there are those who choose to do no harm. If the world were full of people like that there would be no need for rough men to do violence. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/34 "2014-10-16T19:16:31Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > Seriously though, without needlessly fighting the hypothetical what do you suggest instead? Gently talk the escaper into returning? :smack: Yeah I’m not sure what he suggests. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/35 "2014-10-16T19:40:22Z")
1. I remain within the zone, though I’ll probably either be taking ethnographic notes or providing some kind of social-psychological therapy to my fellow detainees, rather than wandering the perimeter. 2. I acknowledge the order and narrate my actions as “aiming at center mass…LAST WARNING! STOP!..firing” while, in fact, aiming at leg or foot…issuing the last warning…and firing. If I really can’t see all that well, then my shot might miss completely or hit lethally; if I only demobilize the runner then I’ll tell my boss that it was tough to see through the crappy NBC window and the sweat pouring down my forehead. And my fellow soldiers can come and haul the runner away from the perimeter (probably to a med center). –G! Thank you, again, for not postulating that my pants are down. Particularly in this scenario!😉 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/36 "2014-10-16T20:07:15Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Run and run. Detaining people in inhumane conditions is in oral and illegal, and I feel no need to abide by rules of a government that would do that-- especially as there are perfectly humane ways of having quarantine. After my 21 days I would Immediately start joining whoever is protesting this thing. What is immoral about having to spend 21 days in a motel with food and supplies being dropped in? The thing that is immoral is _you_ scarpering off and possible wandering around infecting people … what if the next group you meed when you start sneezing and vomiting [or however it is spread in this hypothetical] is a bunch of kids? You walk into a doc in a box and it is full of mothers and kids … Sheesh. As if there would be any question in my mind about NOT spreading Captain Trips around. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/37 "2014-10-16T20:13:20Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > As if there would be any question in my mind about NOT spreading Captain Trips around. I’m glad I’m not the only one using the Captain Trips reference. Maybe I need to re-read The Stand. :p:D ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/38 "2014-10-16T20:19:25Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Just want to apologise for snipping and getting overly snarky here, but literally just wanted to talk about the morals of an impossible situation (I’m sure no hypothetical superebola will be released into an American town, for instance), whether the idea of the greater good can applied morally in this situation or not (use [zombies](http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Redeker_Plan) rather than superebola if you prefer). For impossible moral choices, I recommend the Newsflesh novels by Mira Grant. Talk about impossible choices. I don’t want to say more so that I don’t give anything away. J. p.s. Note: I am not affiliated with the books or author in any way, other than as a satisfied reader. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/39 "2014-10-16T20:49:07Z")
Deadly diseases are no joke. I would be fighting myself, but I would stay in the quarantine zone and if I were a soldier, its bye-bye for that guy ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480/40 "2014-10-16T21:03:20Z")
This is pretty straightforward to me, and it looks like just about everyone else. The bottom line is that breaking a quarantine jeopardizes the lives of the people around you. It’s like drunk driving or randomly firing a gun all around you… well, except that both of those examples have you killing a handful of people at most and spreading a lethal disease could make you responsible for thousands or millions of deaths. People who break quarantines are a type of selfish and reckless that deserves its own circle of hell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-quarantine/701480.md?page=3)