3 ms·

It is worth remembering the "let people get on with it and they will work out" viewpoint within Europe was widely discredited by April 2020 (and ignoring the fa

It is worth remembering the "let people get on with it and they will work out" viewpoint within Europe was widely discredited by April 2020 (and ignoring the fact it worked in countries like Japan that have quite significant constraints on govt power). My conclusion from this is that, in this area, regulations are path dependent. In some countries, people will make the right choices themselves. In others, they won't. I am in the UK, in 2020 it was evident that the hands-off approach really wouldn't work. But it did work this year. Also, I don't think there is any question about fixing it. You have to test (most countries still don't test enough), you have to give people the information to make a choice, and you have to keep vaccinating. Imo, and I thought the opposite in 2020, lockdowns/heavy regulations aren't a long-term strategy (outside of China).

creato 5y ago
I think in general, the gap between what regulations say and what people will do anyways will be small (as long as the regulations are more strict than "default" behavior). At the beginning of the pandemic, where I was, people mostly stopped going to restaurants before regulations said they couldn't. When restrictions have been relaxed, I couldn't really observe any changes in behavior.
ryan_lane 5y ago
Japan didn't "let people get on with it and they will work out". The immigration policy is one of the strictest in the world. We've had numerous "lock downs", which weren't legally enforceable, but when the government makes a request of businesses and people, the compliance rate is very high, and though it's not enforceable, the government will publicly shame companies, and companies take their reputations extremely seriously. People's willingness to comply with lockdowns over time has waned, because the government's response to covid has been pretty incompetent. The thing that has finally started turning things around is the high rate of vaccination.

creato 5y ago

I think in general, the gap between what regulations say and what people will do anyways will be small (as long as the regulations are more strict than "default" behavior). At the beginning of the pandemic, where I was, people mostly stopped going to restaurants before regulations said they couldn't. When restrictions have been relaxed, I couldn't really observe any changes in behavior.

ryan_lane 5y ago

Japan didn't "let people get on with it and they will work out". The immigration policy is one of the strictest in the world. We've had numerous "lock downs", which weren't legally enforceable, but when the government makes a request of businesses and people, the compliance rate is very high, and though it's not enforceable, the government will publicly shame companies, and companies take their reputations extremely seriously. People's willingness to comply with lockdowns over time has waned, because the government's response to covid has been pretty incompetent. The thing that has finally started turning things around is the high rate of vaccination.