Why should people be free to leave their homes during a pandemic? Why should people be free to take drugs?

These questions are asked as though until we can prove that an action would provide a net societal benefit, we should not be allowed to take that action. This is exactly backwards. Any restriction upon freedom should require an overwhelming case that it would prevent enormous harm before we consider adopting it.

In order to defend this, I will provide ten reasons that freedom is generally good.

Freedom here is defined simply as the ability to make your own decisions. If you control what you do, then you are free. If someone else forcibly controls what you do, then you are not free—you are being coerced.

People are more willing to make good decisions for themselves.
Imagine someone who feeds you when you are hungry, clothes you when you are naked and amuses you when you are bored. Imagine this person does so every waking moment of your life. This person would be absurdly altruistic towards you. Even your parents were occasionally too tired to amuse their bored baby.

However, this person does exist and he is you. This shows that nobody is as willing to make decisions in your favor as you.

You might think that people's selfishness is a reason that they should not be free. However, the alternative to freedom is control by someone else. We just established, someone else will be less willing to make good decisions for you than you are. Therefore, if we want good things to happen to people, then we should want those who care most about them to make their decisions—themselves.