Governor Andrew Cuomo (NY) said earlier this year, “And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” The concept here is pretty simple, it’s OK to put the interests of a single person over the interests of everyone else. Unfortunately, this seems to be the prevailing school of thought.
The Declaration of Independence states that we have certain unalienable Rights, among which are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The Declaration doesn’t say, “Life, or Liberty or the Pursuit of Happiness”. It’s not multiple choice. Because they’re not supposed to be mutually exclusive. But for some reason they have become that way.
When people are forced to stay at home, or can’t go to church, or are forced to wear a mask, they’re losing some of their liberties, although presumably the loss is temporary. When the rules forced on us in the name of “flattening the curve” cause irreparable damage to someone’s livelihood, their ability to pursue happiness is hindered. And once derailed, the pursuit of happiness may be permanent.
We’ve known for many months who is the most at risk for a serious reaction to COVID-19. It’s the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions. If you don’t fall into one of those two categories, you’ll most likely be OK. Even if you do fall into one of those two categories, there’s still a good chance you’ll survive. Catching COVID-19 is not the death sentence you’re supposed to believe it is.
But, following the lead of Governor Cuomo, many states and cities are initiating another round of lockdowns, enforcing curfews and closing once again many businesses that have struggled to stay afloat. To protect even one high-risk person, they’re potentially destroying the lives of nearly everyone else. To possibly save some unknown number of lives, tens of millions of people have lost both their liberties and their pursuit of happiness.
We have no data that tells us if the rules imposed by the government have been effective. In fact, some evidence indicates that regardless of the steps taken, the results are essentially the same. The data is conflicted at best and there is nothing that says that any of the liberties or pursuits of happiness lost have saved enough lives to have even been worth it.
The number of people who die from COVID-19 is impossible to know because of the way the results are counted. According to the CDC, about 94% of the people who die while infected with COVID-19 also had something else that was already working very hard to kill them. In 94% of the cases, even without COVID-19, their lifespan was already drastically shortened. There is no way to know how many fewer people would have died, or how much longer someone would have lived, had they not been exposed to COVID-19.
We don’t know if any lives have been saved by the government restrictions, but we do know how many lives have been ruined. Millions of jobs have been lost. Tens of thousands of small businesses have been run out of business. The suicide rate is increasing, drug abuse is up, and many people have died alone because their loved ones were barred from being at their side.
It’s time to follow the lead of Florida and Texas and remove all COVID-related restrictions. Let’s restore everyone’s liberties and allow them to once again pursue happiness. Those at risk, and those simply afraid, can take whatever precautions they wish. Everyone should be responsible for their own safety and decide how much risk they’re willing to accept.
One last note. Somewhere along the line, we got in our heads the ridiculous notion that we have to save everyone. We can’t and we shouldn’t. There are almost eight billion people on this planet and we’re adding over 200,000 more every day. We don’t need to save everyone. We have plenty of spares.
