> The only explanation I see why politicians are so eager to overreact is because most of them are of certain age and because of that belong to the risk group.

I also think shutting everything down is a politically safer move than not doing so and having to face headlines about X number of deaths in their district/town due to [politician], even if most or nearly all of these deaths are very old people who may have died from the flu this year or next year anyways.