More Mailbag

Atlanta, GA

September 29, 2021

Recent missives have drawn more replies. The question below is similar to several, and is a good one, so I’ll reproduce and answer it here.

Question:

JD, You have said that indoor mask mandates and vaccine mandates by businesses are assaults on your freedoms. Let’s say that you are Health Commissioner of Georgia, responsible for assuring an adequate supply of hospital beds. What do you do? (Be realistic, this is a health care emergency!).

Response:

As you can imagine, I support complete separation of medicine and state. I don’t think the state should be involved in healthcare matters at all. Quality has dropped and costs skyrocketed since it became deeply entrenched over the last half century. That should be no surprise.

Government’s job (to the extent it’s legitimate at all) is to protect liberty, not health. Like so many calamities that afflict public life, the Covid disaster was caused not by too little force, meddling, restriction, and coercion, but by too much. We need more freedom, not less. 

People can then decide how to use it (or not) in ways that best align with their values, responsibilities, and risk profile. Everyone is responsible for his own medical decisions, and for those of his family. But not for those of others. 

I see no reason why we should assume government officials and public health bureaucrats would know better what is good for each individual and his family than he can determine for himself. Nor can they know which combination of individual decisions is best for society as a whole. 

There are countless variables, of which viral infection is only one. And most of them are unknown and unknowable outside a very small radius from any particular person.

Evidence over the last eighteen months emphatically reinforces this point. But if I had to be a health commissioner, I would alleviate medical bottle-necks by removing artificial restraints on supply, while ensuring all therapies and treatments are readily available to mitigate demand.

The problems we face are economic, not medical. The hospital “shortage”, like most intractable constraints, is a function of extraneous mandates, price controls, corporate favoritism, product prohibitions, licensing laws, and general government mismanagement. 

I would advise removing all of them, and immediately repeal (or ignore) Certificate of Need requirements that limit ability to construct new hospitals or add extra beds.

I would not require medical personnel to be vaccinated (it’s interesting and perhaps instructive that so many are reluctant). Many nurses and physicians assistants are resigning rather than take a shot they aren’t comfortable with. Others, many of whom worked unvaccinated all last year, are being fired if they choose not to take a shot, which is a curious reward for these “heroes”, particularly if we are in the midst of a “crisis”.

I’d allow each patient to choose whatever treatment he thinks best to alleviate symptoms and reduce demand for hospitalization. Despite recent propaganda, Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin have been used safely and effectively for years, are prescribed by doctors around the world, and have proven beneficial alleviating Covid symptoms and preventing hospitalization in many patients. 

Obesity and diabetes are significant indicators of Covid vulnerability. This is also a perfect opportunity to reemphasize the importance of diet, exercise, and Vitamin D. I would do that too.

But our governments have done the opposite, seeking solutions almost exclusively in one-size-fits-all lockdowns, (small) business closures, mask mandates, and coercing people into taking vaccines that profit companies that provide three quarters of the funding for the agencies that “regulate” them. 

Not that these vaccines aren’t worthwhile. They may very well be the best option for many people. But to mandate or force them violates natural rights, human dignity, and medical ethics, and doesn’t solve the problem. 

I would leave people free to manage their own affairs, doctors at liberty to treat all patients, and any medicine available to those who wish to take it. 

I can’t imagine the results would be any worse than the current calamity. Indeed, Covid, like previous respiratory viruses, has demonstrated a knack for policy invariance. It simply doesn’t care what some government agency tells us to do, or whether we do it. It spreads, infects, bypasses, or retreats as it will.

We’ve known this for over a year, but public health agencies can’t help but justify themselves by over-stepping their bounds, and inserting themselves into our affairs. Their job is to research, evaluate, and give advice. But only each individual can assess how best to apply these recommendations to his own situation. 

These aren’t merely (or even primarily) medical questions. They are philosophic, economic, and spiritual choices, weighing competing personal values on an ever-changing scale. To prescribe top-down “solutions” to tens or hundreds of millions of people was always a fools errand. It was destined to fail, and it has.

So, as health commissioner, I would rescind all price restrictions, remove all licensing laws, eliminate all building limitations, and foreswear all mandates. 

Then I’d disband the organization, and resign. Of course, by then that wouldn’t be necessary. I’d have been fired long before I had the chance!

JD