Curfew restrictions: Is it legal to leave your house?

We might as well just make it easy and allow people to leave the country entirely at this point.
Out there, folks can travel across the states without much of a headache, but here—well, who actually knows when these blockades are going to clear up?
And even if they do finally budge, who’s to say how long we'll be stuck waiting through the aftermath?🥱

Nicholas King said:What exactly would you do with a college student who's stuck in Chicago on some exchange program? Would you just pull a trigger on them? I mean, honestly, why was he even over there in the first place—he was probably just out looking for trouble or getting high, most likely!!!

Just a 14-day quarantine and then they can go wherever they want. Or, more realistically, back to their home state.

What I was trying to get at—and bear with me here—is this odd contradiction where we’re being handed these incredibly rigid, stern rules about social conduct, yet at the same time, international travel remains wide open. If we were truly in total isolation, there wouldn't be much to debate—rules would just be rules—but since we aren't, I suppose it's down to individual discretion, or more importantly, one's own conscience.

You might have caught that segment on the nightly news tonight—you know, the one featuring that doctor who finally admitted he totally underestimated how devastating the virus could be before becoming a victim himself? Luckily, the man pulled through.

James Phillips92 said:Just a 14-day quarantine and then they can go wherever they want. Or, more realistically, back to their home state.

Absolutely mandatory! No exceptions whatsoever.

Isn't it the case that everyone was supposed to undergo two weeks of self-isolation, regardless of whether their tests came back negative?🤔

Karen Patel41 said:Isn't it the case that everyone was supposed to undergo two weeks of self-isolation, regardless of whether their tests came back negative?🤔

And honestly, you have to wonder if they’re actually going to stick to it, or if this is just another one of those empty promises designed to keep everyone quiet for a few months before they inevitably drift right back to their old ways.

I find myself wondering... will they actually follow the rules, just like those twenty thousand other citizens currently under mandate because they’ve been exposed? It includes roughly three-quarters of the total confirmed cases who have also been ordered into self-isolation rather than being held in hospital quarantine. Do I think they will comply? Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue. Perhaps they will, perhaps they won't. As for those twenty thousand people specifically? I simply don't know.

People have traveled, they’ve been tested, and then they were sent straight home to self-isolate—just like the long-haul truckers hitting the interstate or anyone else arriving from out of state

Honestly, though, I just can't wrap my head around why people feel the need to crucify them—it seems to me like nothing more than pure envy, or maybe just plain old hatred, or whatever else you want to call it.

It is truly pathetic to witness how Americans react with such intense hostility toward anyone perceived as a potential threat to their safety or their way of life, showing zero foresight regarding the fact that they could easily find themselves in that exact same position. There is this irrational mindset where if someone is deemed "infected," they must be crushed, eliminated, or completely destroyed, yet when the tide turns and they fall ill themselves, they will be the ones whimpering for help.

They would go as far as trying to shut down borders—not just national ones, but state lines and county lines too. They’d try to prevent fellow citizens from even returning home. People would spend all their energy spinning conspiracy theories about who infected whom, using those lies to justify violence against the very people they’ve branded as the source of the contagion. All while, quite ironically, they let their children out to play in the local parks with other kids.

nimblescout50 said:We might as well just make it easy and allow people to leave the country entirely at this point.
Out there, folks can travel across the states without much of a headache, but here—well, who actually knows when these blockades are going to clear up?
And even if they do finally budge, who’s to say how long we'll be stuck waiting through the aftermath?🥱

Trains run fine in other countries. ...
I don't get it. If someone actually needs to get back abroad and the cops stop them asking for some "permit," what are those poor people supposed to do?

nimbleharbor10 said:It is truly pathetic to witness how Americans react with such intense hostility toward anyone perceived as a potential threat to their safety or their way of life, showing zero foresight regarding the fact that they could easily find themselves in that exact same position. There is this irrational mindset where if someone is deemed "infected," they must be crushed, eliminated, or completely destroyed, yet when the tide turns and they fall ill themselves, they will be the ones whimpering for help.

They would go as far as trying to shut down borders—not just national ones, but state lines and county lines too. They’d try to prevent fellow citizens from even returning home. People would spend all their energy spinning conspiracy theories about who infected whom, using those lies to justify violence against the very people they’ve branded as the source of the contagion. All while, quite ironically, they let their children out to play in the local parks with other kids.

Location... though I suspect you are being somewhat hyperbolic with your phrasing.
Efforts are being made to maintain some semblance of control over the situation. However, we remain in a state where very little is known beyond the most basic generalities.

Joseph Taylor11 said:It's not about what they did, it's about what they *might* do... or even just the possibility that they *could*... 🙄

I was just reading the first part of what @Lisa Chase3 wrote... honestly, she hit the nail right on the head. This is exactly the kind of thing the mainstream media needs to be broadcasting! ☕

Gonna ask carefully here—you being sarcastic or what? 🙂 Honestly, I don't even know anymore. With all this absolute madness going on, I guess nobody even knows what anyone else is thinking.

velvetstag5 said:This is an excellent drill for a much more serious situation down the road.

Viruses are constantly mutating.

My heart goes out to those affected, but honestly, this barely touches anyone here.

...

It’s actually a solid lesson and a chance for society to hit the reset button.

People haven't really stepped foot outside their bubbles for quite a while now.

Most folks have gotten way too caught up in soap opera drama.

Worrying about relationship issues or

stock market fluctuations while sipping whiskey in a suit.

Spot on. Everything’s just one big consumerist rat race now, like some mindless fever dream where nobody cares about the cost. Now people are finally starting to wonder—since they're panicking over flour, yeast, or rolls of TP, or even hand sanitizer (because apparently everyone just realized they actually need to wash their hands, and now the shelves at CVS are totally empty). I don't have any masks, obviously—couldn't find any, or maybe I just forgot to ask at the Walgreens when I heard they had a shipment (which probably got snatched up instantly anyway). Every time I went looking, it was a no from everyone, so that's why I said they *need* to distribute them to anyone without them! But not these useless little scraps... honestly, those could just be used as rags for my own laundry. We need actual professional-grade masks.

Melissa Collins3 said:But seriously, why even bother with all that logistics? There's absolutely no need to be out there delivering anything. We should just lock ourselves away with maybe 40 pounds of flour and a massive stack of toilet paper. Don't open the windows, don't step onto the porch. Give it a few months and that virus will definitely be gone. If someone doesn't make it through the interim, well, that's on them—they clearly didn't stock up on enough flour. And if they don't survive after that? Honestly, what can you do? At least the virus is dead. We can just do it all over again come autumn.

Is anyone here actually thinking straight?

Back in 2020, in a supposedly democratic nation, we were practically writing formal petitions just to be (re)permitted to buy groceries, to drop off food for struggling parents, to show up for work, or to pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy... It feels like the virus ended up being one of our smaller concerns along the way..

Nah, or maybe just a few people, but honestly? Everyone’s just making up their own rules anyway. Nothing you can even do about it. It’s just whoever's holding all the cards who calls the shots.

Matthew Jackson2 said:To be perfectly honest, I can't quite tell if you're actually pushing for tighter government oversight or if you're just advocating for basic non-discrimination and consistency in how rules are applied.

In any case, if one truly wanted to account for every single factor, the only logical solution would be a total, nationwide lockdown—the kind where only essential services remain active to triage critical cases and distribute food and medicine. But even then, we run right back into the same issue of fragmented thinking, because you still have to ask whether those very workers can actually maintain safety protocols without becoming super-spreaders themselves through constant contact with the public. Furthermore, while a concept like that might work for a localized outbreak of a disease with a short incubation period, it's frankly an impossible strategy when dealing with a global pandemic characterized by a long incubation window.

So, yes, we are forced to deal with some level of fragmentation. However, any such measures ought to be rooted in what yields the maximum impact with the absolute minimum of collateral damage, and in my estimation, this current measure has been a complete failure, especially given how it was rolled out—a sentiment I know is shared by many leading epidemiologists over in Europe.

If you're asking me—idk, maybe both? I guess we were way too slow with the "emergency measures" (not that anyone actually declared a state of emergency! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think even the President said there was "no need" for an official declaration after the initial scare), like, we should've started around March 1st or 5th at the absolute latest. By the 15th, everyone knew things were getting real globally. If we’d gone full lockdown mode—you know, quarantines, curfews, strictly staying home, hitting people with fines immediately if they were out when they shouldn't be—we might have actually done something. This is just my take, though. I don't really know what the perfect move was from the jump. I mean, we just heard on the news that this thing can kill healthy young people too, and apparently, Boris Johnson is in the ICU, which is wild. Some neighboring countries, especially with politicians acting all nonchalant—looking at you, Italy—totally missed the memo, and by the time they finally snapped out of it and tried to react, it was already too late. And even where they did pull the trigger fast on restrictions, it didn't even stop the spread. Whatever. I don't know enough about this stuff to be sure, but honestly, no matter how you look at it, it's a mess.

I mean, I'd actually prefer some answers to the real questions—like, WHY NOW? Why this year, or late last year? Like, why this specific virus, where did it come from, what's the actual goal, and what kind of mess is being cooked up behind the scenes while the virus just ends up being "collateral damage."

I mean, honestly, the only way to actually handle all this is a total lockdown, I guess.I guess essential services should be the ones grabbing critical cases and hauling food or meds around, but then you hit that wall where maybe they can't even guarantee they won't just spread the virus since they're touching everyone. Like, sure, that kind of setup works for a local outbreak with a short incubation period, but for a global pandemic with a long incubation? Probably not really doable.

Look, we gotta have some kind of budget, I guess. But it should be based on what actually works without causing a total mess. This whole plan feels like a massive fail to me, especially how they're rolling it out—and even those experts over in Poland seem to think it's a joke.

Smart points, I guess, but honestly? Just a ton of questions and guessing, zero actual answers. They should've just gone full lockdown when... I don't even know... maybe? They knew what was coming when it was still just happening "somewhere far away." I guess. Maybe.

fadedbear92 said:How on earth can they ban us from seeing our own families—which is just heartbreaking, really—while simultaneously letting in people from high-risk countries?!? Shouldn't we be tightening the borders instead? I thought they explicitly promised there wouldn't be any travel at all!

I thought we weren't supposed to be moving across borders at all, like, in any direction. But yeah, some people already went and blew their chances by getting hitched, so everything's basically trashed now. Some wanted this, some wanted that... Whatever. I guess we should just try to stay positive, though. Better days will come for whoever actually makes it through. It’s not like losing one damn season matters much if you're fighting for the "greater good," which is really just barely staying alive. ☕

I just hope there aren't more of those "signing off" posts popping up... I saw some recently deep in the forum archives, and honestly, it hit me pretty hard even though I didn't really know the people involved. Just following certain threads, you know?

nimblescout50 said:We might as well just make it easy and allow people to leave the country entirely at this point.
Out there, folks can travel across the states without much of a headache, but here—well, who actually knows when these blockades are going to clear up?
And even if they do finally budge, who’s to say how long we'll be stuck waiting through the aftermath?🥱

I mean, sure, because everyone has their "valid reasons," especially the ones who’d jump at the chance to get out if they could. But if you’re stuck in quarantine or isolation trying to enter another state, and everything is locked down or your movement is restricted... it’s not exactly a vacation. Still, for some, just seeing a loved one would mean the world—even for these couples who are only 20 minutes apart in different counties but can't meet up. Some people can handle being alone for ages, others can't, and then relationships just fall apart. Everyone’s wired differently, I guess.

No moving, but maybe a TOTAL shutdown instead.

nimbleharbor10 said:It is truly pathetic to witness how Americans react with such intense hostility toward anyone perceived as a potential threat to their safety or their way of life, showing zero foresight regarding the fact that they could easily find themselves in that exact same position. There is this irrational mindset where if someone is deemed "infected," they must be crushed, eliminated, or completely destroyed, yet when the tide turns and they fall ill themselves, they will be the ones whimpering for help.

They would go as far as trying to shut down borders—not just national ones, but state lines and county lines too. They’d try to prevent fellow citizens from even returning home. People would spend all their energy spinning conspiracy theories about who infected whom, using those lies to justify violence against the very people they’ve branded as the source of the contagion. All while, quite ironically, they let their children out to play in the local parks with other kids.

A bit contradictory, I guess, but hey, we’re all a little messy like that. 🙂

Talking about Americans and this kind of hatred? It’s a given. It’s like saying skin and nails go together.

Nobody here is actually trying to police anything, but we can definitely point out the nonsense in this whole situation. One thing is allowed, another isn't; one person gets a pass, another doesn't (even though they're both just as much of a risk for spreading the virus).

Melissa Collins3 said:But seriously, why even bother with all that logistics? There's absolutely no need to be out there delivering anything. We should just lock ourselves away with maybe 40 pounds of flour and a massive stack of toilet paper. Don't open the windows, don't step onto the porch. Give it a few months and that virus will definitely be gone. If someone doesn't make it through the interim, well, that's on them—they clearly didn't stock up on enough flour. And if they don't survive after that? Honestly, what can you do? At least the virus is dead. We can just do it all over again come autumn.

Is anyone here actually thinking straight?

Back in 2020, in a supposedly democratic nation, we were practically writing formal petitions just to be (re)permitted to buy groceries, to drop off food for struggling parents, to show up for work, or to pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy... It feels like the virus ended up being one of our smaller concerns along the way..

Yeah.
You want to know what the real kicker is?
The fact that most people are just sheep, cheering this on and practically begging for even more restrictions on their rights.
And then there's my neighbor, who spends her entire day hovering by the window, waiting to see who steps outside just so she can call the cops on them—it's unbelievable.
The virus is definitely the smaller problem here.

This isn't exactly on-topic for this thread, I know, but does anyone actually know what the drill is when it comes to heading to the ER?
My aunt has been dealing with these absolutely unbearable pains in her leg for two days now, but she keeps repeating this whole mantra about how you can't just show up at the emergency room whenever you feel like it... Honestly, I'm halfway tempted to just shove her in the car and drive us straight to the hospital.
We live in the same city, and neither of us is showing any COVID symptoms or anything like that. Can I just pull up with her without calling ahead or following some specific protocol, or is there more to it?
Thanks

nimbleharbor10 said:It is truly pathetic to witness how Americans react with such intense hostility toward anyone perceived as a potential threat to their safety or their way of life, showing zero foresight regarding the fact that they could easily find themselves in that exact same position. There is this irrational mindset where if someone is deemed "infected," they must be crushed, eliminated, or completely destroyed, yet when the tide turns and they fall ill themselves, they will be the ones whimpering for help.

They would go as far as trying to shut down borders—not just national ones, but state lines and county lines too. They’d try to prevent fellow citizens from even returning home. People would spend all their energy spinning conspiracy theories about who infected whom, using those lies to justify violence against the very people they’ve branded as the source of the contagion. All while, quite ironically, they let their children out to play in the local parks with other kids.

👍

Elizabeth Lewis10 said:This isn't exactly on-topic for this thread, I know, but does anyone actually know what the drill is when it comes to heading to the ER?
My aunt has been dealing with these absolutely unbearable pains in her leg for two days now, but she keeps repeating this whole mantra about how you can't just show up at the emergency room whenever you feel like it... Honestly, I'm halfway tempted to just shove her in the car and drive us straight to the hospital.
We live in the same city, and neither of us is showing any COVID symptoms or anything like that. Can I just pull up with her without calling ahead or following some specific protocol, or is there more to it?
Thanks

Call the local dispatch or non-emergency line and ask about the protocol. It should be fine.

nimbleharbor10 said:It is truly pathetic to witness how Americans react with such intense hostility toward anyone perceived as a potential threat to their safety or their way of life, showing zero foresight regarding the fact that they could easily find themselves in that exact same position. There is this irrational mindset where if someone is deemed "infected," they must be crushed, eliminated, or completely destroyed, yet when the tide turns and they fall ill themselves, they will be the ones whimpering for help.

They would go as far as trying to shut down borders—not just national ones, but state lines and county lines too. They’d try to prevent fellow citizens from even returning home. People would spend all their energy spinning conspiracy theories about who infected whom, using those lies to justify violence against the very people they’ve branded as the source of the contagion. All while, quite ironically, they let their children out to play in the local parks with other kids.

🙏🙏

Signature.

"That politician is a total piece of work
Acting all saintly until the walls start closing in"

I was thinking that we should perhaps start gradually introducing "virus-free zones." For instance, if a place like Savannah, Des Moines, or maybe even a smaller town like Napa hasn't seen any active cases for more than two or three weeks, then I guess we could slowly start normalizing life there. Of course, my thought is that people from neighboring areas should still be restricted from entering those specific spots until those nearby locations have also cleared a reasonable quarantine period. That way, we might be able to steadily expand these healthy zones.☕

Lisa Chase3 said:Gonna ask carefully here—you being sarcastic or what? 🙂 Honestly, I don't even know anymore. With all this absolute madness going on, I guess nobody even knows what anyone else is thinking.

Spot on. Everything’s just one big consumerist rat race now, like some mindless fever dream where nobody cares about the cost. Now people are finally starting to wonder—since they're panicking over flour, yeast, or rolls of TP, or even hand sanitizer (because apparently everyone just realized they actually need to wash their hands, and now the shelves at CVS are totally empty). I don't have any masks, obviously—couldn't find any, or maybe I just forgot to ask at the Walgreens when I heard they had a shipment (which probably got snatched up instantly anyway). Every time I went looking, it was a no from everyone, so that's why I said they *need* to distribute them to anyone without them! But not these useless little scraps... honestly, those could just be used as rags for my own laundry. We need actual professional-grade masks.

Nah, or maybe just a few people, but honestly? Everyone’s just making up their own rules anyway. Nothing you can even do about it. It’s just whoever's holding all the cards who calls the shots.

If you're asking me—idk, maybe both? I guess we were way too slow with the "emergency measures" (not that anyone actually declared a state of emergency! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think even the President said there was "no need" for an official declaration after the initial scare), like, we should've started around March 1st or 5th at the absolute latest. By the 15th, everyone knew things were getting real globally. If we’d gone full lockdown mode—you know, quarantines, curfews, strictly staying home, hitting people with fines immediately if they were out when they shouldn't be—we might have actually done something. This is just my take, though. I don't really know what the perfect move was from the jump. I mean, we just heard on the news that this thing can kill healthy young people too, and apparently, Boris Johnson is in the ICU, which is wild. Some neighboring countries, especially with politicians acting all nonchalant—looking at you, Italy—totally missed the memo, and by the time they finally snapped out of it and tried to react, it was already too late. And even where they did pull the trigger fast on restrictions, it didn't even stop the spread. Whatever. I don't know enough about this stuff to be sure, but honestly, no matter how you look at it, it's a mess.

I mean, I'd actually prefer some answers to the real questions—like, WHY NOW? Why this year, or late last year? Like, why this specific virus, where did it come from, what's the actual goal, and what kind of mess is being cooked up behind the scenes while the virus just ends up being "collateral damage."

I mean, honestly, the only way to actually handle all this is a total lockdown, I guess.I guess essential services should be the ones grabbing critical cases and hauling food or meds around, but then you hit that wall where maybe they can't even guarantee they won't just spread the virus since they're touching everyone. Like, sure, that kind of setup works for a local outbreak with a short incubation period, but for a global pandemic with a long incubation? Probably not really doable.

Look, we gotta have some kind of budget, I guess. But it should be based on what actually works without causing a total mess. This whole plan feels like a massive fail to me, especially how they're rolling it out—and even those experts over in Poland seem to think it's a joke.

Smart points, I guess, but honestly? Just a ton of questions and guessing, zero actual answers. They should've just gone full lockdown when... I don't even know... maybe? They knew what was coming when it was still just happening "somewhere far away." I guess. Maybe.

I thought we weren't supposed to be moving across borders at all, like, in any direction. But yeah, some people already went and blew their chances by getting hitched, so everything's basically trashed now. Some wanted this, some wanted that... Whatever. I guess we should just try to stay positive, though. Better days will come for whoever actually makes it through. It’s not like losing one damn season matters much if you're fighting for the "greater good," which is really just barely staying alive. ☕

I just hope there aren't more of those "signing off" posts popping up... I saw some recently deep in the forum archives, and honestly, it hit me pretty hard even though I didn't really know the people involved. Just following certain threads, you know?

I mean, sure, because everyone has their "valid reasons," especially the ones who’d jump at the chance to get out if they could. But if you’re stuck in quarantine or isolation trying to enter another state, and everything is locked down or your movement is restricted... it’s not exactly a vacation. Still, for some, just seeing a loved one would mean the world—even for these couples who are only 20 minutes apart in different counties but can't meet up. Some people can handle being alone for ages, others can't, and then relationships just fall apart. Everyone’s wired differently, I guess.

No moving, but maybe a TOTAL shutdown instead.

A bit contradictory, I guess, but hey, we’re all a little messy like that. 🙂

Talking about Americans and this kind of hatred? It’s a given. It’s like saying skin and nails go together.

Nobody here is actually trying to police anything, but we can definitely point out the nonsense in this whole situation. One thing is allowed, another isn't; one person gets a pass, another doesn't (even though they're both just as much of a risk for spreading the virus).

I'm not being sarcastic. 🙂 🙂
If you look back at my previous posts, you'll see where my head is at... but this whole situation with how they're issuing tickets? That takes the absurdity to a whole new level.

Man, besides that massive initial blunder of opening up borders with Italy and Austria when everyone already knew those were hotspots, this whole restriction thing was an even bigger mess (and yeah, shutting down markets and killing local trade—though they’re trying to fix that now)

They really should have rolled it out gradually. You know, starting at the county level or maybe by state, which you can clearly see on any US map, just to stop the border crossings from getting absolutely slammed right out of the gate.

If they'd done it that way, they could've cleared up local issues and border zone friction in like a week. Then, depending on how things looked, move on to sub-regions, counties, cities, or even individual precincts and old municipal districts. Honestly, looking back at the last 30 years, the US hasn't come up with anything smarter than the old organizational structures we had before; we just made everything way more complicated. And the cost? Absolutely insane, not even counting all the headaches it caused regular people.

So, Secretary Bozinovic says they issued over 550,000 permits, with only about 14,000 denials. Look, if those numbers are real, there is clearly something seriously broken in this system. And don't even get me started on the wasted time from all those task forces, the total confusion, and the rush to build this buggy electronic permit system. The real bill for this disaster hasn't even hit yet.

Seriously though, where the heck is this "e-permit" system actually hosted?