Until recently I would have said the same thing as you, but I'm increasingly convinced that the drastic changes (closing schools, social distancing etc) are exactly what we should be doing to spread the peak out.

The peak is coming either way. Continuing to allow people to mix with each other as normal will make it steeper and more intense.

This article [0] makes the case well.

[0] https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-peop...