After Californians flocked to beaches to beat the heat last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom reacted by ordering a shutdown of the Orange County shore. In response, thousands of citizens gathered in Huntington Beach to protest the closures. Sure enough, on Monday, the liberal governor was forced to relent, agreeing to reopen two Orange County beaches.
The episode in California was a microcosm of what is beginning to happen nationwide, as the public resists extreme lockdown measures.
Although polling shows that a majority supports continued social distancing in the broader sense, that doesn’t mean that they accept each and every measure. They clearly don’t. The more that governments insist on imposing restrictions on the public that are unsupported by data, the more they risk a backlash that will undermine their efforts.
Studies show that outdoor transmission of the coronavirus is exceedingly rare. It has mostly been transmitted indoors and through public transportation. This has also been borne out by experience.
For weeks, experts warned of the looming outbreak in Florida, especially given that Gov. Ron DeSantis was reluctant to close beaches and videos revealed people gathering at them. The state, with its big, urban population, amusement parks, international travel, cruise ship traffic, and significant elderly population, would seem highly vulnerable to the virus. But there has been no massive outbreak. DeSantis appears to have taken a more targeted approach than news media coverage of the crowded beaches suggests. He was early to restrict visits to nursing homes, one of the hardest-hit places throughout the country, while leaving many other decisions up to local governments.
Banning behavior won’t prevent people from engaging in various activities. It will just ensure that they do so in a less safe manner. In New York City, as summer nears, people will be desperate to get out of their apartments on sweltering days. But public pools are closed, and Mayor Bill de Blasio is keeping beaches out of bounds for the foreseeable future. To be more precise, people may go to the beach, but the city isn’t providing lifeguards or various other facilities. This means people could swarm to unguarded beaches on hot days, and the risk of drownings could increase dramatically. If many parks and playgrounds are closed, other outdoor spaces will become that much more crowded. Already this past weekend, New Yorkers were photographed cramming onto a lawn along the Hudson River in Greenwich Village, mostly without masks.
Some people will point to recent data to argue that this is no time to loosen restrictions. About 70,000 members of the public have already been killed by COVID-19, and 30,000 new cases emerge each day. The curve has been flattened but has not started to decline in most places. That affirms that the virus remains dangerous and that governments need to do all they can to mitigate danger while allowing more of the social and economic freedoms that ordinary people crave and expect.
Distancing restrictions are likely in some form for a long time to come, and this makes it a government duty to take whatever actions it can to make this extended period as tolerable as possible. Outdoor spaces provide a huge benefit to mental and physical health, as do outdoor restaurants, and there is little evidence that people properly distanced in the warm, open air spread the coronavirus.
Governments would be wise to ease restrictions and think of safe ways to allow people to resume activities. If they don’t, incipient signs of civil disobedience will proliferate.
