I agree with you about Covid...in a way. Numbers don't lie and the fraction of the global population killed by it is negligible in comparison to war, starvation, regular influenza, and so on. The reason for the precautions, however, is not to save a tiny percentage of lives that Covid may or may not kill, it's to save everyone else. Imagine a world where govt did fckall about it. No vaccines, lockdowns, masks, social distancing, etc. Very soon the conspiracy theorists would come out proclaiming the government was trying to trim the population because they wanted to save bucks on social welfare. Then there'd be the problem of overcrowded hospitals (we saw this during the first phase) which means less beds for GSW patients, etc. Then there's the medicine. I'm not just talking prescription stuff, I'm talking over-the-counter meds. People with seriously weak immune systems who could end up with Bronchitis from a simple rhinovirus (about 1/4 cases) may have been protected had they been on immune boosters. And, possibly, anti-virals may be out of stock in hospitals because of Covid. Not to mention ventilators. Now consider that as just phase #1, the onset. So now people are paranoid, they're voluntarily locking themselves up, businesses are closing, people are quitting their jobs, and ultimately everyone's looting to survive. Phase #2, the anarchy. Eventually, there's hope. Word spreads that there's a "cure" that you need to have a certain metabolism for. By this stage, almost everyone is grasping at straws, and hey, it sounds scientific, it must be right, right? Phase #3 desperation. Now this cure doesn't work on everyone. Obviously it's BS and the survivors just had better immunity, but people like to believe if it quacks like a duck... However, that duck is being refuted by science. But that duck was science? (to the lay person). But, but, but... I thought this, now I know that. Phase #4 Cognitive Dissonance. So, how do we reconcile all this? That's when the cults start appearing. You see the only ways to reconcile this are through confirmation bias or rationalisation. So some cults offer religion as an excuse. God's will: both sides were wrong, but it was God's will this happened because it is moving us towards paradise. Conversely, it was the work of Satan, decieving people with these false sciences (like he did with fossils, right?). Ergo: This is not my fault, rationalised. Then you get the more "scientific" cult serving the same crap they did with a side of "that" science was wrong because of this and that. Now people have all this "evidence", they look no further, they just keep looking for more evidence to support their "scientific" belief, ignoring evidence to the contrary; confirmation bias. Phase #5, Dark Age. Once again we're back to belief and superstition over critical thinking. Science clashes with belief, but whenever that happens, science usually loses, goes underground, and waits for its chance to return. Faith dominates and dictates morality. Final Phase, Reset.
...or maybe, just maybe, we could've avoided this by trying to minimise the infection rate, death toll totally irrelevant.
Do I necessarily believe this? No, it's mostly conjecture. But it's illustrative of how a system can fall apart if we're not careful. You know Chaos Theory. So you know it's possible. As possible as fckall happening if there'd been no lockdowns (side-note: I blame lockdowns for the state we're in coz if we'd just worn masks, social distanced, taken precautions, lived healthier lifestyles, and been cleaner, we'd be fine coz most of us woulda caught it and survived, preventing its continued spread eventually and subsequent mutations, and maybe buying time to make a more extensively-tested, more effective vaccine with less variables, and thus, less distrust). But hey, I'm just speculating. For transparency's sake: my mother and I have both had Covid and both nearly died. She went to hospital, I refused govt healthcare and even decided to go nursing her when she was discharge early. Yeah, I was nearly dying while looking after someone nearly dying. Kinda funny. Her GP said she's really lucky to be alive at her age. I must've done a good job. My GP went ballistic when I told him the story. He shouted at me, lol.