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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Florida "stay at home" order was issued today [1]. NY Times is also tracking states with and without stay at home orders [2].

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/florida-gover...

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-stay...

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Church / Religious gatherings are exempted, which is, insane.

In SF, I think all religious services have moved to Zoom-style video format with very positive feedback from what I am hearing.

Holy crap, I had to look this up because I didn't believe it. "Religious services" are actually the first defined type of "essential activities"...and Texas' governor just did the same. Wow, this is incredibly foolish.

Any stay-at-home order which stopped religious services would be found in violation of the US Constitution's first amendment. It's possible a judge would throw out the whole stay-at-home order. To have a stay-at-home order that survives in court, exempting religious services is necessary.

I am just not certain that this is true. The 1A also protects protests- am I allowed to organize gatherings of 10+ people for the purpose of a protest? I believe not. The 1A is comprehensive; it is not all-powerful.

Can't shout fire in a crowded theater. And no particular religion is being singled out.

My church in NY did this starting 3/15. If the Catholic church is ahead of the curve, you know you're behind!

Worst are the bowls of holy water which everyone touches.

That is essentially not a stay-at-home order.

We (Oklahoma) do not have a state-wide order. I'm not sure why not because most of our larger cities do. I guess they have to do what they have to do, but seems like city-wide orders would be less effective since you can't bar people from surrounding small towns.

It’s less needed in towns.

The amount of contact between people increases in cities, which makes a huge difference in viral load and how quickly pandemic’s spread. This is why NYC has 1/4th of all US cases even with an early stay at home order.

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