Loại virus nào còn nguy hiểm hơn coronavirus?

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Matthew Lau identifies a virus far more dangerous than SARS-Cov-2. Here’s his opening paragraph:

One of the most alarming things about the pandemic (đại dịch) is how sheepish (bẽn lẽn, e lệ, ngượng ngùng) almost all of us have been in surrendering (đầu hàng) our freedoms to government. The initial (ban đầu) lockdowns (phong tỏa) last spring were met with little protest (phản kháng). Even today, nearly a year later, after the benefits of lockdowns have proven questionable (đáng đặt dấu hỏi, nghi vấn) and the costs exorbitant (cao quá đáng, cắt cổ), even in jurisdictions where the terms of the lockdowns are arbitrary (chuyên quyền, độc đoán; tùy tiện, tùy hứng) and senseless (điên rồ, ngu dại), and despite the fact that many prohibited activities can be done responsibly with minimal public health risk, there is not much pushback against governments’ widespread restrictions of economic and civil freedoms. (If “arbitrary and senseless” seems too strong, just how should we characterize Ontario’s policy that small retailers are not allowed to sell “non-essential” goods in-store but crowded big box stores can?)

After having so easily surrendered our freedoms to the government, we will find it much more difficult to get them back, even after the pandemic is over. Some of the freedoms, such as being allowed to eat at a restaurant or attend a hockey game, will undoubtedly return, but the government-control virus, unlike the coronavirus, is nearly impossible to fully recover from. As economic historian Robert Higgs explained in his 1987 book Crisis (khủng hoảng) and Leviathan (thủy quái), when government both expands its reach and curtails freedom during a crisis, it usually does not return all of the freedom to citizens after the crisis ends.

Bài trước: Covid-19: căn bệnh của nhà giàu