In these trying times, we will discover who we are as a people. Will we act selfishly or for the common good?

The coronavirus pandemic has set up the perfect moral imperative. People without symptoms may carry the disease. Such carriers could feel fine and want to live their lives as they always have — working at their jobs, socializing with their friends, traveling widely in public.

Up to a fifth of people who contract the disease may have no symptoms. Because diagnostic tests for COVID-19 are in short supply, such asymptomatic carriers have no way of knowing they are infecting others. Rather, they have to trust government directives based on science.

All of us have to isolate ourselves, have to stay away from others, have to wear masks.

“When you wear a surgical mask or homemade face covering, what you’re really doing is protecting others from germs you may be carrying,” said Albany County’s health commissioner, Elizabeth Whalen, at a press briefing on Friday. “People that say, ‘I’m not worried about COVID,’ please realize that you’re putting this on for other people … It is protecting other people from your germs.”

Albany County’s sheriff, Craig Apple, expressed a similar sentiment about individual responsibility. He and his deputies haven’t arrested anyone for operating a business or congregating — both of which are against the governor’s directives for a “pause” until at least May 15. Both are punishable with stiff fines.

Rather, the sheriff’s deputies, like the Guilderland Police, have tried to educate offenders and hand out masks for them to wear.

 “Really, it’s about personal accountability,” said Apple. “We are the only ones who can stop this. You can’t blame government. You can’t blame law enforcement. We have to keep the social distance and be respectful of people’s personal space.”

The sheriff concluded, “We’re doing everything we can to keep you safe but, honestly, a lot comes down to personal accountability … If we want to stop the spread, we all need to be responsible.”

Last Wednesday, a group dubbed “Operation Gridlock,” promoted through social media, drew protesters from around the state to clog the road in front of the capitol. Similar protests have been held across the country by conservatives and right-wing groups wanting to end the measures taken to control the spread of coronavirus.

The protesters demanded an end to the “pause,” declared by Governor Andrew Cuomo, which shut down schools and nonessential businesses to flatten the curve of coronavirus infections so as not to overwhelm the health-care system.

“We, the people, want our freedom back,” said one protester’s handwritten sign; “Stop Tyranny” said several red signs shaped as octagons; “Live Free or Die,” declared another placard.

This week, the figures presented by the governor show a decline statewide — and most particularly in New York City, the world’s epicenter for the disease — of hospitalizations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that a region has a 14-day decline in its hospitalization rate before it can begin phased reopening. On Sunday, Cuomo presented a phased reopening plan.

While everyone is eager to get on with their lives, each of us need to follow directives as they unfold. A second wave of the coronavirus could be more deadly than the first. And each region will be different. The number of newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 is still climbing steadily in Albany County due in large part to its aggressive testing.

So, here and now, in the midst of this pandemic, we have a situation where the most basic liberties — for example, to assemble — must be curtailed for the good of all.

At this moment, the future of our society depends on following a course that necessarily curtails individual liberties for the common good. If we “live free,” as the protester’s sign had it, other people — most likely elderly vulnerable people — will die. 

Yes, this is a “crisis,” as Thomas Payne’s pamphlet put it in 1776 and these, too, are the times that try men’s souls.

But we are not fighting the “tyranny” of an oppressive monarchy. New Hampshire’s General John Stark, who fought in the Revolutionary War, came up with the celebratory toast “Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils” that is now New Hampshire’s motto.

Rather, we are part of a democracy — yes, we the people — that has elected leaders to guide us. If their directives are based on science and reason, we need to follow those directives for the common good.

More than that, we are part of a world, made up of different nations with different sorts of governments, that now share, or should share, a common goal: controlling this pandemic.

At his press conference on Sunday, Governor Cuomo said, “Government really can’t act unless the people fully support the action. What we have done here, government couldn’t do. It was a pure function of what people did,” he said of flattening the curve so New York’s hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

“So my plan all along has been: Give people the facts and, if they have the facts, they will act responsibly. But, they have to have the facts. They have to buy into the plan.”

We have the facts here in Albany County. We’ve reported on them daily as they’ve been presented by the county’s executive and health commissioner, and the data is now posted on the county’s website.

The governor went on, “And it really is an individual decision, right? Who’s taking care of your health? You are.”

We might add to the governor’s question: Who’s taking care of your neighbor’s health? You are.

And your neighbor might be next door, or in Kansas, or in South Korea or China.

At his April 24 press briefing, Cuomo read a letter that was like a parable on the common good: “We are a nation in crisis, of that there is no doubt. I’m a retired farmer hunkered down in northeast Kansas with my wife who has but one lung and occasional problems with her remaining lung. She also has diabetes,” the farmer wrote. “We are in our seventies now and frankly I am afraid for her.

“Enclosed, find a solitary N95 mask ... It has never been used. If you could, would you please give this mask to a nurse or doctor in your state? I have kept four masks for my immediate family.”