Maybe the cancellation of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and NBA season just as this was ramping up was justified. Maybe. But college football? No way; that's asinine. It's a bit far in the future, and if you look at China's numbers (with a grain of salt,of course) for infection rate then it seems like the outbreak will probably run its course before then.
I understand coronavirus is real and it kills people, and it has definitely been declared a pandemic, but the media, government, and average citizen's responses thus far have been like shooting a fly on the wall with a grenade launcher. Numbers don't lie - just look at them, and realize they reflect statistics reliant upon positive tests for COVID-19 infection; but it's not like everyone was tested in the past four months, just those with symptoms in healthcare facilities and select groups in various municipalities. The pandemic has the potential to be quite serious (but not nearly as serious as the 1918 influenza pandemic), but the numbers have the outbreak lagging far behind even the 2009 swine flu pandemic, especially in infection rate.
Nonetheless, extreme and perhaps draconian measures seem to be being taken:
- The U.S. Department of Justice plans to suspend the Writ of Habeus Corpus, something expressly forbidden by the Constitution.
- Rhode Island is conducting warrant-less searches of homes to find and isolate individuals infected with coronavirus.
- Every state I've heard of has in some form ordered non-essential businesses to close and individuals to stay home for non-essential activities. The economic repercussions will be felt for years if not decades, and when all is said and done TRILLIONS of dollars will be lost to the world's economy. All for a pandemic that will most likely only kill far less than 0.1% of the world's population. Sure, human life is precious, but is it worth knocking out somewhere around 10% of the personal wealth in the world to deal with this outbreak?
- Perhaps worst of all, authority figures are taking liberties with our rights now that they have been given the opportunity. On Friday, my apartment manager and a maintenance worker, along with two social workers, entered my home uninvited, while I slept, to check for a water leak that didn't exist and do a coronavirus welfare check. The exchange went amicably enough, but one of the social workers saw fit to call the police and inform them I was in possession of a (lawfully-owned) firearm. An hour or two later, I got a knock on my door, and it was six of Riviera Beach's finest ordering me out of my apartment. I was made to remain outside and not allowed to go back into my home for any reason, including using the restroom or getting a cigarette, for close to three hours. The gun was perfectly legal (Mossgerg 590M Shockwave), and I have never been convicted of any crime, nor Baker Acted or otherwise been shown to be a danger to myself or others. The uniformed officers did their thing and finally gave me a clean bill of health after running the serial number of the yet-to-be fired gun, but informed me that a detective had to come by and do a risk assessment. After half an or so she arrived, and questioned me for literally two or three minutes before telling me I could go back about my business, returning my firearm. I went back inside and reloaded the gun (look at a crime map of Riviera Beach if you think I'm somehow unjustified; I live in the middle of the dark red splotch, and have heard gunshots from within my apartment complex on more than one occasion), then ten minutes later the detective returned to tell me the state attorney's office told them to do a further risk assessment, once again violating my civil rights and confiscating my firearm. I am livid to the point of an anxiety attack, somewhat shamed to be a citizen of Florida and the U.S., and maybe worst of all feel violated.