Thread by @sometimesalight

I think it's important to remember that hospitals are full b/c we have the ability to save people from an otherwise horrific death. They are full b/c modern medicine has kept patients alive long enough to have a chance to continue to live.

This must be factored into all our discussions about mandates & safety. Because, even if unconsciously, we are already factoring it into the risk/reward calculus of resisting such protocols. But this is not a freedom shared by those in the developing world.

Which helps us evaluate our own calculus--not of risk & reward--but of rights & responsibilities. What responsibilities do we have *because* we have access to lifesaving modern medicine when others don't?

We should never make such calculations out of guilt or obligation. But we *must* make them from humility & gratitude.

I don't forgo feeding my children b/c other children are hungry. Instead, feed them well & rejoice in it. I teach them how to receive food with grateful hearts precisely b/c we know others are starving. And we are humbled by the fact that we aren't.

So too, we must understand that it is a luxury to be able to debate protocols & mandates. Yes, have the conversations. Deliberate on ethical & legal dimensions. But do so knowing that our ability to ask these questions is not a right so much as a privilege.

In this respect, an argument that does not factor in the global nature of the question--that does not see how debates about protocol are themselves brought to us by wealth & abundance--such an argument will be inherently flawed.

And to my ears, at least, sounds too much like children complaining about eating a casserole because they don't know what's in it.

All while their neighbors starve.

Again, you do not force feed the casserole down someone's throat. You do not offer it to those w/ allergies. But we also can't act like it's okay to reject the food offered to you b/c you know the pantry is full of food you prefer. (At least, it's not okay in my house.)

All that to say, both a full pantry & modern medicine come w/ responsibility. Abundance is a gift. But like all gifts, we must receive them w/ gratitude & humility, knowing that we are weak, dependent creatures whose fortunes could be turned upside down in an instant.