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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

Really though, what "fundamental freedoms" actually have been taken away? I'm not sure how it is in Western Europe, but in the USA, very little has actually changed. All mask "mandates", distancing "requirements", most travel "restrictions" and many business "closures" have been voluntary and ultimately unenforced. Fortunately, enough people are voluntarily doing the right thing, but it could have really gone sideways if there were more idiots who refused.

For some reason this whole mask thing has really gotten people all worked up about their rights, over such a tiny thing. Suddenly, everyone is Braveheart--fighting for their freedom against the oppression of... uh... wearing a little piece of cloth on their face. I mean, generations past were drafted off to war for their country, many of them losing their lives. Talk about your freedom being under attack! Today people are losing their minds over a piece of cloth.

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In France it's currently illegal to go outside after 7pm, all gyms, museums, cinemas are closed, and all restaurants and bars are take-out only (not even outdoor dining). Of course a mask mandate indoors and outdoors, but I agree that's not a huge inconvenience relative to the others...

Those are just the restrictions actively enforced. Technically one can't go more than 10 km from their house, but I'm not sure how much that's really enforced.

These restrictions are so stupid. Meanwhile people go to large weddings [1], meet in homes for parties and of course have to go to the supermarket.

Are there even numbers how many infections occur in supermarkets? Any measurements? What has the government been doing in the past year?

[1] It is of course not politically correct to ask in which population segments such weddings occur.

Similar restrictions were also implemented in Ireland.

If France is on the same course as the UK, then they will have to reach 50% vaccinated for the first time, before the government will lift many of the restrictions.

To me curfews that dictate that you cannot go outside is not the european way.

> To me curfews that dictate that you cannot go outside is not the european way.

Is death the European way? In France, the curfew was implemented in order to avoid a more serious lockdown, and tightened when needed, only after hospital admission rates' progression were dangerously close to hospital capacity.

Nobody wants to limit personal freedoms, but considering the alternative was to let hospitals overflow and people die waiting for care, was there really any actual choice?

If temporary limits to personal freedom are the price to pay to not sacrifice your fellow co-citizens.. Who is still arguing against them? Are human lives less important than your right to go outside?

And of course everything is temporary. It has real life economic costs, people don't like it, and there will be elections sooner or later. Even if a power tripping politician likes keeping the population under curfew, they won't last.

I'm all for fighting the pandemic and not dying, I just doubt curfews are the way to do it. They force people to gather in shops and public transportation at the same time.

> Are human lives less important than your right to go outside?

Yes, of course. Depending on the number of years potentially lost.

Agreed on curfews. The police effectively corral all the aperos and picnics from open-air parks into tiny overcrowded apartments every evening.

Though the French government has already announced plans to gradually lift restrictions throughout May and June. No telling if they'll stick to it though :)

>but it could have really gone sideways if there were more idiots who refused.

not disagreeing with the bottom half of the post but can we not forget that the US lost more than half a million people and accounted for abouth a fifth of global deaths. We're still in this thing and the usual indifference to disaster appears to be setting in

No, totally not saying US did a good job at all--just that it could have been a hell of a lot worse if more of the population went "Freedom Fighter" bananas over the masks and distancing.

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