And in all of this what he’s completely neglecting is that heads of executive branches actually do wield some pretty awesome emergency powers to give pretty much whatever order they like. This is something actually granted to them by reason itself, mostly.
You see, if we wait for the process of making a law to deal with an actual emergency, we wait until the emergency has done the maximum amount of damage before anything can be done to mitigate that damage. Hence, governors, and believe it or not Presidents, actually have the authority to order people to do certain things to help in that emergency. They may end up paying a price for it later, but it can be done. Example? Martial law! Yes, Posse comitatus does put limits on the President’s use of the military on US citizens, as a response to the unfettered power that Lincoln had to use the US military against US citizens, in Union states as well as Confederate states, however he can still order their deployment without Congressional approval, with the President merely paying the price later … if Congress, or the public, bothers to actually demand anything.
Oh, it should also be known, the National Guard has a very special status, so that Congressional approval is not needed to call them into service on US soil, because they so often provide vital support in emergencies, or at least can, such as helping to evacuate flood zones and mitigate flood damage in face of large storms. Also they could provide support to medical services in the case of epidemic disease. You know, just saying.
But, yeah, a governor can order businesses, and even churches, to shut their doors in the face of rampant disease. This isn’t the first time it’s been done, in fact. It’s even done from time to time at municipal levels if a city or county has a bad outbreak of disease, and has been done at a national level at least once in the US. Spanish Flu, if you’ll recall, which had several nations scrambling to deal with the problem.
Oh, and if you wonder why we have so many fewer deaths from this than Spanish Flu? First, it hasn’t run its full course. Also, more has been learned about the spread of disease in 100 years, and as dumb as people like “Emperor” Paul Bury think the shut down responses were, those are exactly the things they learned needed to be done at a much wider scale than was done during the Spanish Flu. Since we obviously cannot stop the spread, we should at least do things to slow it so our medications can keep pace with the disease, rather than getting millions infected all at once and finding out that tens of thousands will be hospitalized, when our hospitals can’t accommodate nearly so many. Also, in a couple years we might have an effective vaccine.
These people are more of a piss off group of fuck nuts anyway, because they keep saying everyone should just get sick, get through it, and if you die then you’re dead. Even insisting only old people die, as if that somehow makes it better, and completely ignore, IT’S KILLING FUCKING KIDS TOO, ASSHOLE!