First off, thanks for responding.
4. Do what China did. Solid lockdown, heavy fines or jail terms for people breaking the rules.
China also spread this thing in the first place, had the death penalty for anyone breaking the rules, and there were reports of starvation from the lockdown.
5. This disease is extraordinary. There’s no vaccine like we have for the annual flu season, no “herd immunity”, it’s highly contagious through normal contact, and it kills.
It is deadlier and more infectious, but “During the 2018–19 flu season, about 35 million people in the US contracted the flu and about 34,000 died;” that’s still a whole lot and we don’t lock down one bit when that happens. Also, I thought we don’t know about herd immunity yet.
7. If people are informed about the nature of a threat, they are usually pretty good at finding an appropriate response.
Agreed. I probably think people here are better informed than you do though.
8. The primary purpose of democratic government is to protect the citizens.
Interesting. I also disagree with this because I think it gives the government an incredible amount of power. We could discuss this more if you’d like, but in short I agree with Franklin's assertion that “those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
10. Either accept tens of thousands dying every month until a [vaccine] arrives next year, or crack down hard, keep everyone contained, and get the thing over with.
Maybe that would be okay if we could expect a vaccine early next year, and if the government did more to help out. Then it might be okay from a safety standpoint, though certainly not from a civil liberties standpoint. However, we don’t know when we’ll get a vaccine; what if it’s in two years? Staying locked down for two years without government help would kill more people than the virus, and staying locked down for two years with government help, well, then we might as well just move to Russia or China or North Korea. What would be the difference then?
