In one sense, each person needs to think about the value of life for themselves, and I suppose the equation is different for everyone. So I won’t push my views on anyone. But I appreciate the question, and I’ll offer a few bits of math, science and economic food for thought:

— The U.S. government actually puts a value on life: The Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) sits at about $10 million right now (I wrote about it here). By that measure and the government’s own logic, which considers economics, it’s worth spending $3 trillion to prevent 300,000 deaths.

— Regardless how much average life is shaved off by Covid-19 deaths, the disease kills people of all ages, including a lot of people ages 25 to 44 who are in their working prime. Anyway, from an empathetic and moral perspective, is 10 good years of life worth less than 20? Can we really put math to that? Perhaps one ought to consider what the life of their own child, sibling, partner or parent/grandparent is worth.

— Economists argue that as long as the virus runs rampant, and people get sick and die, the economy can’t be healthy (i.e. even without lockdowns, things just won’t functioning normally, and a lot of people will avoid going out and spending money and working their hardest, etc.). So preventing spread and saving illnesses and lives (and getting schools open so parents can go back to work and regain some sanity) is, the experts argue, good for the economy.

— Epidemiologists and other scientists and health experts say that if prevention efforts had been more organized (federally) and stringent early on, the pandemic would be less serious and thus fewer deaths — a national mask mandate alone, without costing hardly anything, could have saved thousands upon thousands of lives). By leaving it up to states, a confusing and frustrating patchwork approach to mitigation has fueled more cases and, at the moment, new record highs every week. And there’s still no federal plan, other than vaccines, which are still weeks away (and possibly months) from being distributed in quantities significant enough to flatten the curve.

Hope that stimulates thought!