Former secretary of state Condoleeza Rice recently told a Hoover Institution audience that the country is focused on “trying to save New York.”

She couldn’t be more right. If the New York City metro area were a state, it would have suffered more fatalities than 41 other states combined. New York’s plight is explained in large part by its subway system, crowded living conditions, and status as a center of international travel.

But New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, whom I’ve worked with in the past, says it’s unfair for the rest of the country to endure a lockdown “despite having neither New York’s living conditions nor New York’s health outcomes. This is bad medicine, misguided public policy, and horrible politics.”

Stephens quotes Tomislav Mihaljevic, the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic as saying: “The public conversation needs to be about the value of human life in its totality.”

That means fewer restrictions for populations less at risk from the virus and more precautions for those at the high end of the risk curve.

“I don’t see why people living in a Nashville suburb should not be allowed to return to their jobs because people like me choose to live, travel and work in urban sardine cans,” Stephens concluded.