Public health is an approach to managing threats to life, safety and wellness. It tries to minimize risks that cause illness and death and seeks the greatest good for the greatest number.

One would think that this would be beyond controversy. But evidently not in these troubled and divisive times. Partisan lines seem to be emerging between those who are communitarians and think ‘”We’re all in this together” and those who are radical individualists and think “The final criterion is ‘How does this benefit me?'”

COVID-19 is challenging all of us to ask ethical and moral questions about what sacrifices (if any) we are willing to make for others who may be significantly more at risk than we are. So far in Maine, we have done well in answering this challenge by affirming that “all lives matter” and that we will go a long way to preserve the lives of those who may be more at risk than us.

What would make this easier is if our federal government was committed to easing the burden on everyone so that peoples lives aren’t ruined by the steps we have had to take to reduce the destruction of the virus. This was what the New Deal of the Great Depression did and it transformed this country. Unfortunately, in the last 50 years we have had a return to the philosophy that preceded and caused the Great Depression.

The challenge lies before us: Can we forge a new commitment to one another out of the suffering that we are now experiencing?

David Doreau

Waterville