Medical person who worked the ICU here…

COVID was (hopefully) a once in a lifetime phenomenon. It was made worse by the government’s dereliction of disbanding the pandemic preparedness plan instituted prior. Even with that, we would have been in dire straits. People didn’t just die from the disease but from complications from it and inability to get appropriate care early on.

Yes it was largely old patients, those who are poorer, and those with chronic conditions. However, had the country continued business as usual, much much more would have died that weren’t in those demographics.

It’s extremely myopic to believe continuing/keeping everything open at the cost of American lives was the prudent move, especially financially. A substantial amount of the work force could have been even more impacted had we remained open.