Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When hospitals are filling up COVID measures are necessary. They are only "necessary" if you are optimizing the metric "make sure hospitals run smoothly" over any other concerns. I hate this framing that Covid restrictions are ever forced on us, rather than being a policy choice with pros and cons.
I'd imagine that scaling up ICU capacity has to be more efficient than constantly enacting mandates on the entire population for a decade.
That also doesn't account for the damage people contracting the virus accumulate that doesn't register on that metric.