Freedom, Covid-19, and Resistance to Public Health Orders

As we look back on one year since the first Covid-19 lockdowns went into effect in the United States, several truths about this ever-changing virus have emerged. For one, well-fitting, multi-layered face masks significantly reduce people’s likelihood of spreading or catching Covid-19 (e.g., Leung et al., 2020), and the vaccines similarly reduce the risk of spread and infection (Thompson et al., 2021). Second, things that were, at best, at the outskirts of people’s attention have become commonplace over the past year: hand sanitizer, social distancing, mask wearing, vaccinations. The related third truth is that over the past year, most Americans have probably heard prominent public health figures, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, regularly urging—and sometimes even seemingly demanding—that people behave (or stop behaving) in certain ways to prevent the spread of Covid-19.