It seems to me that the pandemic itself is not that big of a threat to society - after all, even if we did absolutely nothing and went about business as usual,

It seems to me that the pandemic itself is not that big of a threat to society - after all, even if we did absolutely nothing and went about business as usual, some small X% of the population would die, hospitals might be forced to do bed rationing for a while (leading to more deaths), but the vast majority of citizens would get better in a few weeks due to their natural immune systems. 20-30 years in the future you wouldn't be able to tell it ever happened. The threat to society as it relates to the pandemic is all due to red vs. blue political in-fighting over how much responsibility and power the government should have for protecting its citizens. That plus the added threat of economic turmoil due to commercially onerous government mandates/policies/efforts to reduce X% (lockdowns, capacity mandates, rent moratoriums, etc.). I just find it interesting that society is tearing itself apart over a problem that essentially solves itself over time regardless of our actions, meanwhile society is not tearing itself apart over a problem that does not solve itself over time (climate change) and where doing nothing will eventually have consequences of apocalyptic proportions.