Having observed covid from the beginning I have to say that business closures, mask requirements and the like have been bs from the start.
IF we really had a devastating plague I can’t imagine it would be handled this way.
There has never been a time I couldn’t freely shop in every box store and supermarket, restaurants have been open most of the time.
I got vaccinated and never had covid a far as I know.
And at this point while there is a huge spread of cases, people are tired of restrictions, everything is open and about half the people don’t wear masks.
Just saying except for vaccines (if they work) there was never a real shutdown like you’d do if there was any hope of stopping a plague.
Several countries in Europe and elsewhere did have much more extreme lockdowns than were typical in the US. Ex. Spain again, in March-May 2020, where people were not allowed to leave their homes except for essential reasons and there were police patrols out to enforce it. Heck, you cant keep people from going out to get food, else you would have much worse problems than covid. I doubt whether greater isolation, in a large population, is even possible should there be an even more fatal disease.