[SailinAway]

Let's say your priorities in the pandemic are one or more of the following:

1. To end the pandemic as soon as possible
2. To not die of Covid
3. To not lose anyone close to me to Covid
4. To be free to do what I want, when I want, where I want
5. To not have the government force me to do something I don't want to do
6. To not have to wear a mask
7. To not have to get vaccinated
8. To get businesses fully open as soon as possible
9. To not get sick
10. To restore the economy
11. To not be inconvenienced
12. To not make anyone else sick
13. To follow the beliefs of my political party and its leader
14. To get all the kids back in school
15. To not have to work at home anymore
16. To not be exposed to unmasked, unvaccinated sick people
17. To get the whole country vaccinated
18. To not lose my job
19. Etc

Here's the problem: You can't have everything on that list at once. So you choose your priorities, realizing that when you choose certain things, other things aren't going to be possible. If freedom is my top priority and I won't budge on that, then I'll be giving up everything on the above list except for freedoms. You can't be 100% free and end the pandemic quickly, restore the economy, get kids back in school, keep your job, not get sick, avoid dying, and not lose anyone close to you to Covid. If protecting everyone and ending the pandemic as quickly as possible is your priority, you will be giving up the freedom to whatever you want, when you want it, without government interference.

We each have to make this choice individually, but the pandemic is not going to end until most of decide we really want it to end. If you make freedom your top priority, you're saying in effect, "Ending the pandemic quickly, restoring the economy, and saving lives are not my top priorities." I would just ask you to imagine how you personally are going to be affected if this pandemic goes on for years because not enough people want to end it. There's no way you will be able to hang onto the life you had before the pandemic, unless you live off the grid and are 100% self-sufficient.

You make trade-offs and sacrifices every day of your life. You obey the speed limit so you don't end up in jail. You pay your property taxes so the town doesn't seize your house. You may feel resentful of those things you're forced to do, but you have the good sense to realize that the payoff for doing them is worth it. You don't let your emotions overrule your intelligence.

It's the same with the pandemic: it's a simple, rational calculation of sacrifices versus benefits. Sure, we all have strong emotions about the pandemic and we all resent it, but it's rational thinking that's going to get us where we ALL want to go: an end to the virus, fully reopening businesses, and no more restrictions on what we can do in public.