Much has been expressed recently concerning freedoms and rights, especially regarding masks. From my perspective, public safety concerns during an epidemic/pandemic will always trump individual freedoms and rights to the degree of the lethality of the epidemic/pandemic.

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic killed up to 675,000 people in a U.S. population of about 100 million over a two-year period. Translating to today’s population, a similar outbreak could result in up to 2 million deaths. A typical flu season results in an average of 37,000 flu-related deaths. We have come to accept flu-related deaths as a “cost of doing business” — that is, no special precautions need to be taken.

As of this writing, U.S. covid-19 deaths are reported as 191,000, equivalent to five flu seasons. We are only six months out from the initial outbreak, so the pandemic has a long way to run and may be a 10-flu season event (370,000 deaths). By comparison, the 1918 pandemic equated to a 50-plus flu season event.

If we were facing that kind of lethality, discussions of “freedoms and rights” would be curtailed, I am sure. Thus, the question remains: What degree of covid-19 lethality would trigger “refuseniks” (champions of “freedoms and rights”) into accepting broad public safety measures — a 20-flu season event? A 30-flu season event?

It is only a matter of degree that dictates observing public safety guidelines, not whether there is an absolute “right or freedom” to ignore them.

James Kvitkovich

Hempfield

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