This quote from Vera Sharav from the video below has really stayed with me. Because I see it as sort of the antidote to the “Greater Good” idea that currently pushes public health measures.

Caring about the individual has become rebranded as this “selfish” and unnecessary thing. But a community is made up of INDIVIDUALS. When you harm the individual, you harm the community.

Different people really do have different needs, and different priorities. We get ourselves into trouble when we try to paint everyone with ‘a broad brush’. Universal health mandates of any kind ignores that there are differences in people, and avoids the conversation that there may be more beneficial alternatives.

Caring about the community IS caring about the individual. It IS listening and acknowledging that these differences are valid, that different physiologies, medical histories, genetic structures, and genetic risks SHOULD be treated differently.

Caring about the community IS empowering people to take personal responsibility of their own health. That it’s time for the individual to self-assess their own strengths and weaknesses and empowering each person to honestly take steps to make better health decisions FOR THEMSELVES.

Stripping the individual of personal choice and personal power IS harming the community.