Besides that I consider this discussion mostly theoretical as I doubt that one would get large enough parts of the population to agree - they are not even agree

Besides that I consider this discussion mostly theoretical as I doubt that one would get large enough parts of the population to agree - they are not even agreeing to erradicate diseases we could easily erradicate, like the measels - a planned limited shut down wouldn't be very disruptive. Here it Europe, it is quite common for businesses to shut entirely down for a few weeks every year. The reason is managing employee vacations. It is easier managing this by shutting down entirely. Even the big car companies have two weeks every year, where the production is mostly shut down. And even many US companies have mandatory shut-downs on thanksgiving or christmas.