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> But what is the alternative? Letting things run rampant because you didn't want to impose upon peoples human rights?

Yes this is the alternative. We trade security, another form of it in this case, for freedom. I didn't think the author made a very good case for "living hell", or for that matter have a very good list of egregious things the govt did. But they made a good point at the end with "one day you may be the price that is paid".

Anyway the US won't have to face the issue as China did because it will arrive everywhere if it gets bad, not one starting point that can be contained. And then all the govt here has to do is scare people enough with warnings of danger to lock things down pretty well. Fears of liability will do most of the rest when it comes to schools and other things shutting down.

Your alternative sounds an awful lot like what has been done in china by other means.

> Hindsight is 20/20. But their mindset, about not wanting to start an unwarranted panic, about wanting to investigate things fully, is understandable.

When there's clear evidence of the beginnings of an epidemic, a public panic (like we're seeing right now, but on a global scale) is much better than the epidemic spreading.

> China is doing the best it can to stop this outbreak where it stands.

Apparently doing the best they can involves discrediting doctors warning about an outbreak.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/03/asia/coronavirus-doctor-whist...

That was one step (in december). Not the only step, which the WHO mentioned specifically in their latest report. The locking down of Wuhan was instrumental in limiting the outbreak. I am, almost universally, critical of China's government and evolved social systems. This is an exception. They took pragmatic steps that were effective.

I wouldn't characterize this as 'China doing its best'. I think this step, as you put it, is chilling to the Chinese medical community. Why do they have to live under these conditions? Why should folks feel like they can't speak up about their condition in China without having to hide their identity?

This is still a good distance from the best in my view.