I think Musk could have fared better working with the government to make it feasible to work in the Tesla factories and limit exposure and provide a model for other businesses. Instead he just went ahead and has no guarantee that his employees won't be exposed.
When did this become the norm? It happened sometime in the last decade, this idea that life is the ultimate metric with which to measure the utility of some action.
I agree that life is precious and up there in importance, but I do not agree that it is the most important variable to optimize for. There are things more precious than life, such as freedom. Specifically, freedom that can be guaranteed for the next generation.
I worry that the "save lives" crusaders will eventually win and everyone will be safely enslaved in a brave new world of a super powerful government that doesn't let you do anything except have sex and do recreational drugs.
Once you speak about someone else's — no, life is the most precious part you need to preserve. The reason is simple: any material things can be replaced, but a life, once stopped, cannot be reinstated.
The trouble with deep economy shutdown, though, is that it becomes a trolley problem: do you want to save some more lives today at the risk of having more people die later because of the consequences? I think this is where the war mentality should kick in: we need to fight and have our commanders risk our lives, so that the other people we care about would live. It's not that bad yet, though, except for the medical personnel.