This book is about a malady-not my own, though mine helped me to see it, but our common American one: "our public malady," to borrow James Madison's phrase.
From the beginning the author gives a clear indication of the contents and message of his work. The "malady" he refers to is the lack of solidarity and empathy embedded in the society, produced by greed and selfishness of the system that is supposed to provide freedom for its people.
Freedom is about each of us, and yet none of us is free without help.
The author questions the equality for all people because of the way the system divides the people and creates inequality based on race or wealth, especially in terms of health care. The paradox of freedom comes from the need of solidarity and empathy to create a free world with combined effort.
To be free we need our health, and for our health we need one another.
In the ending chapter of his work, the author summarizes the purpose of his work and the main motive, which is health. Based on his own experience, he was inspired to question the health system of America, the attitude towards the patients and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He criticizes the way the patients are treated as mere objects or numbers rather than persons in need of help, and the system governed by greed which normalized that kind of treatment.
