The one fact that is often overlooked is that the shutdowns were never there to stop the spread of the virus. They were there to slow it down so it wouldn't completely overwhelm the hospitals. As bad as it got, it would have been worse had they not slowed the spread.
This 1000%, this was the goal, even if some want or imagine the goal to be maximum life saving. It wasn't. And even if trying to prevent hospitals being overwhelmed was just to prevent the social chaos that might follow from that, hospitals being overwhelmed is REALLY BAD and leads to more deaths
The initial science at the start estimated that there was: -30% infection rate -3% hospitalization rate -1% fatality rate If you look at the numbers now, those estimates hold up. But, by slowing the spread, they saved lives that would have been lost if the hospitals couldn't keep up.
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Important reminder. Thanks.
Also, that it is difficult to operate in-person schools when teachers get seriously ill in large numbers.
It's difficult to keep societal order if half the police and fire departments call in sick. Not to mention water and electrical service. There is a good chance we would have seen a complete societal collapse if we hadn't shut things down to slow the spread.
Agreed. And the Repubs in Michigan insisted it was to hurt businesses. I really can't imagine any politician or civic manager who would shut down businesses just because they wanted to hurt business; but that was the claim and it sure angered a lot of ignorant, gullible, scared voters.
Yeah, it was to prevent the entire country from looking like New York City did during early April 2020. And in that respect it was a spectacular success. Trump, paranoid and self-centered, immediately decided Covid was a plot designed to ruin him politically, and his party followed in lockstep.