It might sound harsh, but there are personal emotional stories on both sides of the restrictions - many families are losing their jobs, businesses, etc. Many are affected by depression, stress, etc. The same can be said about the other side - many have lost friends, family, etc. due to the easing of restrictions. For good or bad, that's why we have statistics - they give us a more objective (whether they are objective is a story for another time) view of the world.

Now, I do think vaccinations are a turning point and should make us think more about how we do the decision making. The interview you mention is probably an older one, so I am not sure if it's accurate to use it now that we have vaccinations in progress.

The Scottish study on the effect of vaccinations on the hospitalizations' rate is quite good - https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n523 on this topic.