It began with Ayn Rand and may have ended up on life support with Covid19 and how humans have reacted

It (my general political-philosophical set of beliefs) really did begin with Ayn Rand, first reading

"Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal " and then devouring Atlas shrugged and Fountainhead.

By late adulthood

my political-philosophical beliefs were fairly well settled in to be.

1)Strong belief in the importance of private property and rule of law and contract law and limited government and that central planning was for the most part a bad game plan

2)support for the kindergarten lesson of "don't mess with other people or their stuff". 

3)Individual freedom was important and the libertarian non-aggression axiom seemed like a good maxim;

4) The history of the 20th century made it quite clear that economic central planning as in communist USSR and China was a disastrous idea leading to the death of millions of people. 

I generally felt fairly comfortable in my self chosen set of reassuring voices in a my echo chamber

consisting of various blogs,books and podcasts and U tube sites until recently. 

 Coincident with the Covid pandemc,Some of the web sties, and  blogs which over the year s have been reliable dispensers of Austrian economic dogma  and general libertarian thought have with an alarming frequency published pseudo-scientific hogwash in regard to the covid 19 pandemic. 

One such posting denied the validity of current concept of viruses putting forth instead the bizarre notion that what are called viruses are actually waste products of cellular damage brought about by various type of  electromagnetic waves. All of the pseudoscientific is not quite as bat-sh**t

crazy as this denial of basic biologic knowledge but some are very close. For example, the claim that wearing a mask will lead to carbon dioxide retention and that mask wearing will lower your immune response , both claims lacking in scientific proof .

The covid pandemic has spotlighted the conflict between the common good and individual freedom.  

Nicholas Talib's comment seemed to an effort to  settle the apparent conflict when he said to remember that the principle underlying libertarian ,axiom , is the non aggression axiom

. If you believe that there is asymptomatic transmission of   a potentially serious  and potentially fatal disease the transmission of which can be significantly  mitigated by wearing a mask, then you need to wear a mask to conform with libertarian basic axiom if  you cannot socially distance .To not wear a mask with those assumptions in mind is to disregard or dismiss the non aggression  moral imperative as you are taking an aggressive act against strangers and or friends. 

However, it seems that there a number of vocal libertarian and libertarian leaning conservatives who do not agree with some or all of the following assumptions

1) There is a Covid 19 pandemic

2)Covid 19 is spread by respiratory droplets and aerosols and fomites

3) Masks will mitigate the spread of covid 19 

4)social distancing will mitigate the spread of covid 19

5) Viral vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective and have provided a "herd immjnity" for a a number of viral illnesses

 There is are a number of vocal libertarians and libertarian leaning conservative who believe or at least espouse some or all of he following:

1.The pandemic is a hoax

2 covid vaccine is a means of population control