That’s not at all how you’re taught to handle emergencies.

From health emergencies to shootings to computer system crashes to pandemics — doing things without a reason to believe they’ll improve the situation is dangerous. You can and many have made things worse. And ignoring experts shouting “wait, no!” is a recipe for disaster.

When we were responding to COVID, we had plenty of time to have that debate in a candid way. We just went down an authoritarian path instead.