A friend recently sent me this article by Heather MacDonald , discussing the various lockdown efforts being taken in response to the coronavirus outbreak. I don't know whether I agree with it, but I do know that I plan to use it the next time I teach "In Search of Justice." Students who have taken that class will recognize the issue of trade-offs in MacDonald's piece. She argues, in brief, that the damage being caused by extreme measures to halt the spread of the virus--essentially shutting down large sectors of the US economy, causing unemployment, small business closings, lost revenues, and slowed growth in the future--are disproportionate to the actual severity of the epidemic. More lives are lost to the flu, she writes, or even to traffic accidents, yet we don't bring the country to a halt because of them. As I say, I'm not sure I agree. This virus spreads so quickly that the extreme measures may be our only way of ensuring that medical provider...
Random Musings on Culture, Morality, and Politics, from a college emptied of its students