Reply #33: People do not "passively accept" the measures. They actively demand them.

[Occam Bandage]

There's enormous public pressure to prevent pandemics both in Hong Kong and in Mexico. People eagerly do whatever they can to avoid the crisis turning into a disaster. Heck, Hong Kong is a society like Japan in that sick people regularly wear masks to avoid infecting others. They rightly treat quarantines as a tool of the public good, where Americans would fear them (as you do) as an ominous threat by Big Brother.