Rights and Liberties During a Time of COVID-19r's Choice

The subject of the role of government authority vs. individual liberty is often contentious, especially in a nation
which is founded upon the ideal of individual liberty and often holds it above all other rights. The intersection
where these two concepts meet has formed the cornerstone of a tremendous number of debates, court cases,
etc. throughout the nation’s history, whether the debate be over healthcare, gun rights, or vaccinations to name
but a few. We have now seen this debate shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global response to the
virus which have been unlike anything we have witnessed in modern human history. In a matter of a few
months we have seen life as we know it grind to a halt. Entire nations have literally shut down, economies have
been utterly decimated as industries were forced to close, leading to untold economic suffering the likes of
which the United States has not seen since the Great Depression with at least 15% (the true number is likely
far higher though as official unemployment numbers do not count all people without jobs) of American workers
out of jobs. Millions have been infected worldwide with the U.S. alone accounting for nearly 2 million of the
known cases globally and more than 100,000 Americans having died from the disease. To put this into
perspective, more people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 over the past 5 months than did U.S. soldiers
during the entire course of the Vietnam War.