Its heartbreaking that some are still disputing the reality of Covid19.
A difficult story to read.
If you can look past the "progressive" leftist agenda, the ABC is a reasonable news source. I put progressive in inverted commas because it's an Orwellian word. "Progressive" now means hell bent on destroying every vestige of Christian morality and personal freedoms that empower people to make their own decisions and choices about right and wrong.
Are there people beyond the fringe who actually believe it doesn't exist? I don't deny its existence, I stand in 100% opposition to government mandates though. My view represents the overwhelming majority of those who are skeptics on the subject, we oppose mandates and call into question government accounting methods. The virus exists though, complete with a 99.6% survival rate.
Watched a ~ 20 minute video of one of Australia ABC segments or specials on Covid a few months back, and their live stream a few times. I like getting new perspectives.
There are road rules to ensure that roads are basically safe. Do you object to those? The death and injury rate per mile driven is statistically negligible, not worth worrying about. Unless, of course, you are the victim and your car is wrecked by a drunk who walks away unharmed.
There isn't the slightest bit of evidence that government action has made anyone safe. There's plenty of rhetoric but precious little evidence.
I find that with regulations such as you cite they are never actually about safety but rather politically connected businesses using the power of the state to destroy their competition. All in the name of safety of course. Markets demand safety, government demands campaign donations followed by obedience.
I disagree, at least in Australia. Poor government policy, or at least implementation, has resulted in many unnecessary cases and consequently, some deaths. Once the implementation improved, the number of cases dropped, in Victoria at least, to zero. Now life is pretty much back to normal. So Australia can be seen as a test case where strict quarantine, social distancing and mask wearing regulations have been enforced. It's been hard, especially on the medical profession. Now life is returning to normal. The economy is springing back to life. For sure it could all fall apart at any time. Just one undetected case could undo all the hard work of many months. From what I've observed, the real false rhetoric is on the "it's not a problem" side. I suspect that the real winner in the USA and other sceptic nations is the funeral industry.
That's the problem, one case will result in extreme totalitarian action by the state. Free people shouldn't put up with any of this.
If consumers demand safe products, manufacturers respond accordingly. If fact, government action is usually a step or two behind the market when it comes to safety regulations. That has been true in car manufacturering. Seat belts and air bags came about not through regulation but because consumers demanded safer products. Go back a century, progressives make a big deal out of food regulations but consumers were already demanding safer food products and manufacturers were responding on their own. In fact, regulations were pushed by big food manufacturers such as Heinz because they could control the regulations through campaign donations and then use the regulations to destroy their competitors. Heinz bought up some of their competitors at reduced prices because of this, otherwise they put them out of business because the regulations were draconian. Safety was never a consideration.
