Ten Questions for Those in Favor of Lockdowns
Sincerely, I’d Like to Know What You Think
Now that lockdowns across America are slowly being dismantled — businesses reopening, people going back to work, parks and trails finally being unrestricted — there are still some who oppose these moves and wish the lockdowns were being continued.
It is people who hold this belief that I am interested in understanding; I want to learn what your reason is, so long as it is genuine and well-founded.
I’m not looking to try and understand those who think doing anything the media doesn’t give permission for is killing grandma. And I’m not looking to try and understand those who think we should stay locked down to hurt Trump’s reelection chances or to use this “opportunity” to pass a political agenda.
Everyone else, everyone who is rational, which I still think is most of the population, check out these questions and feel free to respond with your thoughts; they are not rhetorical.
- How dangerous do you think outside is, with and without a mask? If your answer is very dangerous, I would point out that outdoors is generally considered much safer than indoors.
- If you have an estimate, when do you expect we’ll have a vaccine or a cure? MSN published an article that stated: “Dr. Emily Erbelding, an infectious disease expert at NIAID — which is part of the National Institutes of Health — said the typical vaccine takes between eight and 10 years to develop.” However, Dr. Anthony Fauci has asserted that 12–18 months is the goal for a coronavirus vaccine.
- Are you still able to make enough money to support yourself and your family during the lockdown? I think this one is important because if you are, perhaps you can’t fully understand what those who aren’t are going through. And if you aren’t able to make money at this time, that makes me even more intrigued to hear why you support the lockdown.
- Are you against any reduction of restrictions, or are there some restrictions you think could be lifted while still keeping the shelter-in-place orders? I guess my question is, how much lockdown do you support?
- Do you think we should lock down every time a disease hits us? What about the flu? Or do you have a certain level of infectiousness and deadliness that you think warrants a lockdown?
- How important to you are the effects of the lockdown — unemployment, poverty, starvation, suicide, increases in governmental power, if you think that is an issue — compared to the effects of the virus? Do you consider them almost worse than the virus but not quite, or not at all comparable?
- How far do you think people’s freedom to make their own decisions goes? Presumably, if you support the lockdown you think freedom can be limited at times. How far would you be willing to take that? Do you have a hard limit or is it situational?
- What do you think the primary role of government is? Protecting liberty? Creating a good society? How much power are you willing to give the government to fulfill whatever goal you think it should have?
- How much do you trust the government? Federal, state and local. Do you believe your representatives and unelected officials are truly acting on the best data for the common good? Or do you have any doubts about them being uninformed, having ulterior motives, or anything like that?
- What do you think of this statement? Without a vaccine or cure, and because locking down forever would create worse problems than the virus, everyone is eventually going to be infected. Because of that, we should limit the damage both virus and lockdown does by quarantining the most vulnerable and letting those who want get back to work.
This essay was inspired by Tim Wise:
More on related topics:
…The government shouldn’t have a say in whether or not we risk our lives to make a living…
…A universal health care system would remove people’s right to make choices about their own life by saying that the government knows best…
…“Work for the elimination of concrete evils rather than for the realization of abstract goods”…
