The policy does seem absurd hindsight. As does the whole "wash your hands for 20 seconds" and "we see no reason to record mask-wearing". I agree it's important

The policy does seem absurd hindsight. As does the whole "wash your hands for 20 seconds" and "we see no reason to record mask-wearing". I agree it's important to be cautious when deciding whether an emergency overrides the right to liberty. We have to bear in mind that in mid-2020 we had very little knowledge of the fatality, infectiousness, or transmission mechanism of the virus. It was huge, unknown risk to public health, there wasn't time to research the virus profile or to carefully construct fine-grained policies.