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Comment by jbay808 | Hacker News Reader

Fair enough, if that's your view!

For me, this hypothetical is more a situation where we're talking about one's freedom to make choices that endanger those around them, in addition themselves. When the principal danger is to oneself I think restrictions are rarely justified, but when the consequences are borne by others, I think it's more justified. For example, when operating cars, we don't allow you to drink and drive, run red lights, or drive on the sidewalk, primarily because it creates at least as much risk for your neighbours as it does for yourself.

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> When the principal danger is to oneself I think restrictions are rarely justified, but when the consequences are borne by others, I think it's more justified.

I think this point makes broad sense but needs refinement. For example if we assume there is a vaccine available that:

- Reduces personal injury - Does not prevent transmission

Using the above logic would mean that after taking the vaccine restrictions are more justified because the burden of the disease has shifted. I don't think that's what you intended and probably means that there still needs to be reference to absolute harm and taking reasonable minimization measures.

I guess I meant that the restrictions are justified based on the harm prevention to your neighbours, rather than to yourself (I didn't mean to imply that it's based on some ratio).

In that sense, if a vaccine purely reduced transmission even without offering any other protection, mandating it could still be justified for certain activities, just like a driver's license is considered reasonable today.

I'm sure driver's licenses were considered very controversial restrictions on personal freedom back when they were first introduced.

> restrictions are justified based on the harm prevention to your neighbours

Taken to the extreme this kind of thought becomes pretty anti-human (thanos, global warming)

> mandating it could still be justified for certain activities

Yeah it could be justified for sure - I just don't think there's any way of ignoring that it's a judgement call/balance.

I definitely think both extremes become... extreme. The freedom to drink alcohol while driving your car down the sidewalk without a license as people dive out of your way is also pretty anti-human!

Of course, we could allow that freedom and then just penalize people in court when they happen to injure others with their car. But it might be even more dangerous to set a precedent where you can take someone to court for transmitting a virus to you, or get charged with murder for being part of a transmission chain that results in a death.

Anyway, so I agree with you that it's about balance, and I do agree that Canada's policies are not getting that right (and, in many instances, lacking common sense).

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