Do you believe the government can force citizens to protect the public?

Yes.

But it’s not really a question of what I, or anyone else may believe. It’s a matter of law :

https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2020/youraba-april-2020/law-guides-legal-approach-to-pandemic/

The states, and the federal government each have authority under their seperate constitutions and related statues to take action to protect public health and safety during disasters and in emergencies.

But the pandemic impacts in the US and around the world have raised legitmate questions about how long those emergency powers should be in force, what’s been done to manage the economic & social damage, and how well the public understands government plans and intentions.

All together it adds up to the kind of public stress and sacrifice you rarely see except in wartime. And it doesn’t help that most of our politicians are gutless hacks, and a quarter of the population are extremist goons.

God bless America.

Yes. Covid vaccine possibly oversteps since it’s putting something into one’s body, but everything else you listed, yes. Plus, add quarantine and isolation, which you don’t have listed.

Laws are to protect the individual and greater society and especially those who cannot protect themselves.

This idea that freedom means people can do any damn thing they want to do is not what freedom means in America or any civilized society.

Part of being free in America is being safe. If you endanger others or burden society too much financially, then you take away the freedom of others, and the government tries to keep all of that within reasonable limits.

The “government” the “citizens” and the “public” should not be fighting each other as they are essentially one and the same. Keep stopping at red lights and use your vote wisely.

That’s more or less what Gov’t is for. Part of that is fostering an environment that protects liberty, proper stewardship of natural and infrastructure resources and maintains reasonable levels of safety. It’s when Gov’t becomes self-serving there is a problem. I have no problem with the Gov’t telling people they need to wear face masks during a pandemic.

Yes, I believe the government can force citizens to protect the public.

Not really, no. Americans are not very obedient by nature.
The best way to influence masks and vaccines, etc.., is through patriotism. We just need a new campaign manager.

I don’t believe the question phrased to reflect the facts. Do you believe the governent has the responsibility to protect its citizens from epidemics and to minimize contagion?

Who wants smallpox to come back?

Not me @Six !

Smallpox can’t come back unless you plan on releasing it from a lab.

And how did it get conquered?

@JLeslie the reason we don’t have smallpox is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vaccinations for kids at one year old.

And through out the world.

Apparently, today eradication of such a scourge would be rendered all but impossible. The antivax craze now assures us a reservoir of mutable pathogens for all future outbreaks regarding any communicable disease. The implications are rather terrifying.

@Tropical_Willie Children haven’t been vaccinated for smallpox since the early ‘70’s. What are you talking about? Everyone, children and adults, were vaccinated throughout the world during the 60’s to early 70’s, and then when there were no cases for a certain number of years they stopped vaccinating.

The only people who get smallpox vaccinations now are some very specific people in the military and some other front line or maybe people who work with the virus in a lab.

Also, smallpox doesn’t jump species, it’s only been found in humans. Plus, It’s not extremely contagious like measles or even covid19, although someone who sneezes or coughs on you can transmit it, it doesn’t easily float through the air for long periods or distances.

It’s hard to eradicate a disease when it is harbored in animals. If we keep humans away from the animals that harbor the disease we can reduce the risk of another outbreak if we actually get rid of the virus at least temporarily among humans, and if we have a vaccine that increases immunity that can stop the virus from traveling across the human population when there is contact.

If someone released smallpox today, more than 50% of the population has zero immunity. The last people to get vaccinated are in their early 50’s now. If you’re under 50 you have no immunity, unless you’re lucky enough to have natural immunity (rare) or you are part of the few thousand in the world who are vaccinated for special circumstances.

Measles and polio don’t cross species either. That’s why the Gates foundation is making an effort to rid the planet of both.

The reason we DON’T have smallpox is . . . . . . . . . . . vaccinations !

Yes . . . . 1940s 1950s 1960s it stopped in 1972 because there were no cases of smallpox.

Maybe if the ALL anti-vaxxers got vaccinated there wouldn’t be COVID-19 !

And we see now demonstrated the chances for THAT.

Usually enlightened self-interest is a pretty reliable argument to motivate people’s self-care. But that changed in a big way in recent times, nowhere better illustrated than Jonestown: people put their faith in a cult leader over their own well-being and that of their loved ones. They gave first place to a misguided belief, ahead of food, clothing, shelter, family, and safety. And 909 of them, a third of whom were children, ended up dead by mass suicide in Guyana on November 18, 1978, truly a day of horror.

To be able to actually force people, we would have to have a different kind of government: one more like China’s, North Korea’s, or Russia’s. We’re getting closer. It’s ironic that people who shout the loudest about their “freedoms” are the ones furthering and promoting that transition to a state where freedom has no meaning.

@Jeruba – Wise words, and a pretty stark reminder from almost-forgotten history about how far some will follow even the worst leaders.

Those people died in a jungle in South America as victims of a religious cult. But they were nearly all Americans, born in culture where questioning authority is a duty.

Thanks, @JLoon. Jim Jones was a local in Northern California. I was following the news that fall because of the reports of local residents (San Francisco and Bay Area) disappearing silently overnight as Jim Jones gathered his disciples in a new promised land. I remember the terrible finale, as the early reports emerged and we began to get glimpses of what had happened—and then the full horrifying story came out.

Later on I read at least five books on the so-called massacre and what led up to it, mostly by people who escaped the final sacrifice: how he attracted people and how he manipulated them, cut them off from their families and backgrounds and made them dependent on him, how he became the sole legitimate object of their devotion. That process is all so much easier now, terrifyingly easier, with the internet and its profound mind-softening powers.

Back in 1980, I wrote that the computer was the greatest Trojan Horse of all time. And I had no idea.

No. People should be able to choose those things not the government. If there are others who think opposite don’t attack me.

So, @KRD, you don’t believe in stopping at red lights unless you happen to feel like it?

Is there anything you think people shouldn’t feel free to do? You don’t believe in any laws at all? Just asking.

@KRD You are imagining a country where the traffic lights are always green as you approach. Alas, such a country will never be.