We are trading economic output in exchange for lowering the transmission rate of the disease. By lowering the transmission rate, we are lowering the peak use of

We are trading economic output in exchange for lowering the transmission rate of the disease. By lowering the transmission rate, we are lowering the peak use of medical resources, lowering the loss of life. Your second paragraph acknowledges this, and I think pretty much everyone is on the same page here at this point. But the question in your third paragraph "what is being done with the time we're buying" could be restated as "what are we getting for our loss in economic output _in terms of economic output_?' That's not what we are doing, we are giving up economic output, not getting it. Of course any schemes/inventions/techniques that increase the coefficient of return of this trade off would be welcome, but doesn't change the fundamental direction of the tradeoff. And that's not to say we are doing nothing at all with that time. Maybe we have "more time to develop a vaccine", or "time to make ventillators."? But those _are_ economic outputs. Those actions trade back lives (via increased transmission rates) for production of utilities that we believe will save lives in an equation that nets a positive. And it's not to say that people won't do some productive things during this (like the memes of inventing calculus in isolation or whatever), but for sure society is reducing it's overall economic output. So from this point on the questions (and threats of defection) you raise kinda presuppose that trading economic production for saving lives is not worth it (at whatever ratio you're expecting). Potentially this is because you expect higher economic costs/lower life savings than the generally accepted projections, or because you value life less, or you believe the economic loss will lead to greater loss of life long term. I think the burden then is on you to either produce better projections, or promote candidates into government/leadership positions that share your moral outlook, or formulate and promulgate a model that shows the dramatic effects you expect due to the economic loss. To put it another way, a simplified answer to 'what are we doing with the time' could be 'approximately nothing', and our society at large seems to be on board with that trade. If you're not, change my/our mind.