The emphasis on freedoms comes about in the context of a world where powerful entities (governments, private corporations, wealthy individuals) are often oppres

The emphasis on freedoms comes about in the context of a world where powerful entities (governments, private corporations, wealthy individuals) are often oppressive, cruel, and/or corrupt. In that context, it is useful to constrain their power at all times - even when it has negative consequences in the short term. In the immediate circumstances, I don't disagree with you - but that's a result of the circumstances. We happen to have an extraordinarily safe and effective vaccine available, and COVID-19 is debilitating, deadly, and causing havoc in our healthcare system. It's less obvious that anti-disease measures governments took in the past, or may take in the future, should be seen as uncontroversial. Taken to an extreme, your argument could be used to prevent the propagation of certain combinations of genes. Similar arguments were also used to justify mass-spraying DDT to eliminate malaria. https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...