[pasabagi]

Expertise exists. You can ask a hundred non-mathematicians what a circle is, and get a hundred incoherent answers.

Sometimes, you just have to recognize that you don't have the requisite training to respond to a problem, and just follow advice from people who do.

[mdp2021]

This post does not seem to have much relation to what I wrote.

The article writer wrote that during the epidemic freedoms where curtailed; I noted that more importantly, the citizens of democratic societies, that constitutionally see their members as empowered, in regulations became de facto elements regarded as fools. It is a paradox and reveals a bigger problem: liabilities should not be free to start with and the role of the state is to diminish their number in favour of the mature (reliable etc). So, the problem of freedom that the article author mentions so swiftly is shallowly treated.

There is no need to have any «requisite training», in this occasional context, to know that you cannot go around and sneeze on people, that you cannot risk people's health lightly, that "do not meet people" does not equate to "do not leave the house". It is just a matter of basic wits. When basics are supposed as missing a massive societal problem is revealed. Pointing the focus over freedom when the ground approach is regarding people as fools is missing a bigger point. In some territories people have been forbidden to live the house - not in New York or Singapore or Valletta, but in the remote countryside and mountainside; in some territories people have been forbidden to take a walk in the night. Beyond the limitation of freedom there is a labelling of the population as mentally underage. Technical-scientific-medical competence over e.g. the effectiveness of masks has nothing to do with it.

And for what «expertise» and «advice» are concerned - which were not at all part of my argument -, many administrations have made it very apparent that they had no credibility or substantial authority. This again, underlines a massive societal problem. Citizens are required to have basic wits and much more - and administrations with even more reason.

[pasabagi]

Democracy is not supposed to settle technical questions. It is supposed to settle questions about societal goals and moires.

As such, there's no need for anybody to know about anything technical. And they don't: the president of the US suggested injecting bleach. The prime minister of the UK bragged loudly about shaking hands with absolutely everyone.

The various interventions vis-a-vis night-time strolls were basically technical measures in the end of a widely-agreed upon goal: avoiding mass casualties. You can say you are fine with the casualties. You can become an expert and identify a mistake in the argumentation. You can't vote on what the facts are, and whether or not 'do not leave the house' moves case rates up or down is a fact.