Through the lenses of the pandemic: three short reflections on science policy and citizens’ rights

What we are experiencing today as a society also requires rethinking the relation between liberty and security. Indeed, the new imagination/interpretation of what we are entitled to do without harming others goes beyond the model proposed after 9/11, when the main mantra was that we had simply to ‘give up’ our liberties in exchange for more security. But we are also moving beyond the vision of individual liberties as atomistic, compatible actions: my freedom ends where your freedom begins. Moreover, safety and security cannot be granted only by authorities. A new way of imagining and connecting liberty and security suggests that citizens collaborate in preserving each other freedom ‘in’ security and interpret their rights also as forms of collaborative actions. We are finding ourselves in a relational situation where, for instance, individual health (and right to health) is radically intertwined with, and implies, shared, collective health.