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Australia is a federation of states, just like the USA. There are US states that restrict movement and gatherings for other reasons such as gang-related activit
by angled 6y ago
Australia is a federation of states, just like the USA. There are US states that restrict movement and gatherings for other reasons such as gang-related activity and organised crime; what was special in this case?
It’s a strange question to say individual freedom and safety are two different things. Aren’t they the same thing? What is desirable about being free but unsafe?
- refurb 6y agoI mean we could have stopped Covid in it tracks in the US and been very safe if we just welded the doors shut to keep people in their homes but we aren’t going to do that.
- sanp 6y agoYeah. AUS, NZ, SK, Taiwan, Japan did not weld their doors shut. SK, Japan, Taiwan had more doors open than most of the US.
- refurb 6y agoJapan has had an explosion of cases. Not a great example. The others are islands and they could easily restrict movement.
- angled 6y agoAny country can be a logical island if it restricts movement at its national borders. Was the US powerless at the federal level to do this, or is that a state issue? Even grouping the US by landmarks (west of the Rockies, in between the Rockies and the Mississippi, east of the Mississippi) and having open interstate movement in those zones would have been a start. The options for handling COVID was not a binary choice between absolutely libertarian and absolutely draconian policies. There was and is a middle ground!
- lenkite 6y agoInternational airport transits are still suspended. Travellers arriving in Taiwan need to provide a negative COVID-19 (PCR) test result issued within three business days before boarding your flight to Taiwan, regardless of nationality or visa status. Antigen or antibody test results will not be accepted. There's been a seventh automatic 30-day visa extension for foreigners who arrived on short-term visitor visas on or before 21 March 2020 and whose stay has exceeded 180 days.
- jandrewrogers 6y agoBeing a "federation" has nothing to do with it. US States are expressly prohibited from closing their borders. That right to travel is near absolute in the US, even the Federal government can't prohibit it outside of very narrow cases that don't apply here. In the US, as a matter of Constitutional law, people have rights reserved to them that the government, State or Federal, cannot take away from them outside of narrow circumstances (like a felony conviction). Freedom of travel within the US happens to be one of those near absolute rights, like freedom of speech. Americans take this very seriously as a matter of culture; no court would allow it and there would be widespread civil disobedience if they tried.