> it's not as if governments forced these shutdowns on a whim or because they felt like it. They were the result of scientific examination

[Source: a friend of mine who worked in local government disaster & contingency planning]

I don't believe that government-mandated lockdowns were ever part of any pre-Covid19 pandemic planning. It was assumed that [for instance] schools might well end up having to close if the spread of disease got so widespread that there wouldn't be enough healthy staff to keep them open, not because government would order them closed.