A virus is not human but the reaction to it is a measure of humanity. America has not measured
up well. Tens of thousands are dead for no reason. America is supposed to be about freedom yet
illness and fear make its citizens less free. After all freedom is meaningless if we are too
ill to think about our right to happiness or too weak to pursue it. So if a government is
making its people unhealthy it is also making them unfree.On December 29 2019 Timothy Snyder
fell gravely ill. As he clung to life he found himself reflecting on the fragility of health
not recognized in America as a human right but without which all rights and freedoms have no
meaning. And that was before the pandemic. We have since watched understaffed and undersupplied
hospitals buckling under waves of coronavirus patients. The federal government made matters
worse through wilful ignorance misinformation and profiteering. This passionate intervention
outlines the lessons we must all learn wherever we are and finds glimmers of hope in dark
times. Only by enshrining healthcare as a human right elevating the authority of doctors and
truth and planning for our children's future can everyone be properly free.Freedom belongs to
individuals. But to be free we need our health and for our health we need one another.
