"Internationally, the control that governments could exercise in the name of #COVID mitigation appeared almost limitless. #Canada made it impossible for the unvaccinated to leave the country. #Germany and #Austria locked down their unvaccinated, with the latter even making the injection a legal requirement. #Australia seemed to return to its roots as a prison colony, beating protesters, arresting families in parks, and placing large numbers of their aboriginal population in detention camps in the name of reducing the spread. Footage of police in #Amsterdam turning dogs on “unauthorized” lockdown protesters was shared widely on the internet.

"These are, in theory, Western liberal democracies that respect individual rights to assemble, protest, move freely, and have bodily autonomy over medical decisions. Yet those rights quickly vanished as the state moved to consolidate its authority." (from Ch. 2)