[PyramidPractice] Are governments too opaque with COVID-19 lockdown policy?

submitted by danuker from self.PyramidPractice

Given that COVID-19 has an unprecedented government response around the world, severely limiting people's rights, how come there have not been clear explanations of when and what will be locked down?

For instance, my government (Romania) constantly says it will implement a gradual response, yet it does not say what that response will be as a function of case or death rate over time. It just says "if citizens comply, we might lift the lockdowns".

Telling businesses and citizens what to expect from governments would eliminate the government response's uncertainty, that is right now on top of the disease's propagation uncertainty.

(Granted, this is an "ought" question, and you can not arrive to an answer without using at least one "ought" premise).

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[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Nothing the government does should be secret. We should be able to know everything about the government in order to ensure complete accountability.

[–]danuker[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I don't know what I expected from this discussion... You're preaching to the quire.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

choir.

[–]danuker[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

D'oh. You are right.

I will leave the mistake/unintended archaic spelling immortalized, so I don't forget it, and so I don't get the asterisk.

[–]comments 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well if we want to get high on the pyramid of debate the first thing we might need is an evaluation of the current situation with citations, that ought to get us to the top three levels... I hope (I'm still pretty new at this).

It's hard to say for my country (the USA). I was happy to see what I felt was clear guidance put out a little while ago by the federal gov't, detailing specific criteria required for re-opening in phases (hey, a citation!) that seemed sensible when I looked at it. I haven't been following as closely as I should be, but it's unclear how much of this is actually enforceable, and what each state is doing exactly, and whether they're following these guidances. I do kindof feel like people have been somewhat clear here about what the rules are, but then, I haven't really looked at it all that closely because I think we should be being more careful than we are. And I got a bit fatigued, and there are other pressing issues in my life that I'm trying to prioritize right now.

I'm not that happy with how transparent our gov't has been regarding the reasons for the guidance. I don't feel they've been fully honest, specifically with saying masks don't help and then saying they do, but I think that kind of way of handling things has probably carried over to other issues not just masks. It feels difficult to just get accurate, simple information and support resources that are based on the best current available info about how to help. I'm used to being told this is the sort of thing private entities out to be able to solve well and it seems like that's true to me, in terms of providing information and material support, but it doesn't seem to be materializing.

I feel I've gotten a bit off-topic. I feel there have been good attempts in my country to be transparent about the opening process, but it's not clear how well that's being followed through on at the state level. I'm not that sure what my state is doing, but that's because I haven't been paying attention. I am dissatisfied with government transparency in my country regarding COVID-19 on issues other than lockdown policy.