“One law for the lion and ox is oppression”: the rule that is too harsh for San Diego is much too lax for New York.
This is what Leopold Kohr meant with his famous phrase. Too effectively deal with any problem, either acute or endemic, you have to break it up into pieces large enough to handle. In this case, states and counties should have their own protocols.
A strict observance of this rule is how Finland could beat the Soviet invasion forces in 1939: small groups of Finns would isolate Soviet army units in pieces small enough to handle and destroy them one at a time. To outsiders it looked like a miracle. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_(m…
We practice this rule in our homes as well, with differences in temperature in each room: heating the whole house equally is wasteful, but we can heat one room, or even just one piece of furniture, very cheaply.
It is difficult for a large country to effectively stop an epidemic, but it is eminently doable by a small town allowed to set the playbook according to what they think best gives the results they want.
