COVID is one of those issues where details matter. Without social distancing, the disease is more deadly than the flu, so comparisons to COVID under lock-down and the flu under vaccination are like apples and ocelots. Frankly, anyone who uses any statistic other than hospitalizations per thousand is either too stupid or dishonest to take seriously.

Second, a vaccine is coming. That's a very big deal, because the economic damage needn't be permanent. Normal economic life will return when a reasonably effective vaccine is available (no matter how many people refuse to take it; if they die, they die). So the real problem is politicians not grasping the feasibility and wisdom of short-term manna-fication of the economy. We are in the desert, and we need some per capita resources to tide us over until we reach the promised land. How hard is that?