Herd immunity is probably the BEST course over all.
Short term pain for long term gain.
Maybe overall it might just save MORE lives. An immune population is a good thing, especially for future waves.
It just isn’t politically viable. Our pussy society couldn’t handle it. They can’t stand it if even ONE child dies. Yet women MURDER over EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND children EVERY YEAR in the USA.
So, what’s the big deal about just a FEW hundred thousand deaths of people who “were going there anyway”? /s (sort of?)
If you go for herd immunity, you have to skip the ventilators and let the critical cases die. Give them enough morphine that they don’t notice drowning in their own pink frothy lung fluids. 2/3 of ventilator cases end up dying anyway, often after weeks on the machine in a medically induced coma.
In the first world, we have the luxury of making that decision. In the 3rd world, the decision is made for them by lack of medical infrastructure.
See: Guayaquil, Ecuador, “The Gateway to the Pacific Rim.”