It has been over a month since quarantine began, and the shutdown of the country has forced all of us to isolate ourselves. This means no hanging out with friends, or going to bars, movies, restaurants or parks. In a country that prides itself on individual freedom, this has caused a cabin fever outbreak. As the pandemic goes on, people continue to go crazy.
Protests have spread throughout the country. Found in these crowds of protestors is a common sentiment: the government has gone too far in COVID-19 measures and it is time to reopen the country, regardless of the consequences.
These protests are a dangerous, selfish and rather poorly thought-out reaction to a crisis that is affecting every person in the world to some extent.
For one, it makes the protestors seem rather childish. All it takes is a few weeks at home, a little sacrifice during a time where all must suffer isolation and loneliness, and these people lose their minds. They may believe that it is a hoax or won’t affect them, but they could not be more wrong.
The protests, ironically, might just lengthen the amount of time we have to be in the insanity inducing seclusion of our own homes. Many of these protestors are in crowds without masks, making it very possible that at least someone will get sick.
As the number of cases increase, the curve gets closer to reaching its peak. Instead of leading to a safe de-escalation of measures in a somewhat timely manner, there are two outcomes that could result from the protests: the states will keep the measures on for a longer time or give up entirely, which threatens to overwhelm our medical system with cases.
That leads to the underlying problem with the protesters attitude, which is a lack of thoughtfulness about others around them. Most will say that lives are at risk, that we all have to die sometime, therefore we need to open up the country instead of trying to prevent the inevitable. This is a ridiculous argument.
During a crisis like this, where many may die, we have to collectively let go of our individual freedoms for the moment to prevent a complete disaster. Human lives must mean more than our economy or doing whatever we want to do.
Under normal circumstances, the limits on individual freedoms would be unwarranted. There would be just cause to protest our government to say this is unacceptable and it would be lauded by anyone who does not wish for tyranny. Now is not one of those times.
The limits on people have been uniform and are done with a good purpose, no one group is being picked on or killed, everyone is just inconvenienced. The only action now to end the inconvenience is to sit until the cases go down or a vaccine is found.