The concern has always been that COVID-19 hospitalizations would overwhelm our healthcare capacity, resulting in excess deaths due to lack of care. That is beca

The concern has always been that COVID-19 hospitalizations would overwhelm our healthcare capacity, resulting in excess deaths due to lack of care. That is because the disease spreads so easily and because it results in a high rate of hospitalizations (high enough to threaten healthcare capacity). "What are we doing?! This is not an existential threat!" We were saving lives by moderating the spread of this disease so it did not overwhelm our healthcare capacity. For the most part it worked.