At least in Europe we never had a lockdown comparable to the Shanghai lockdown. People always could go to get food, medicine and get to work. The highest level of lockdown was that in-door and outdoor meeting in private were restricted somewhat (in Germany you could only walk with a single person from another household but couldn't sit down on a park bench).

I think western democracies had a much more commensurate approach to Covid even though they failed in protecting the nursing home population.

It is difficult to name a country that has "defeated" COVID. This video is from one of the best responses if you believe the lies the Chinese government pumps out about their COVID case counts. The situation today remains the same as the situation in March 2020 - anyone who doesn't die quickly of other causes is going to get COVID. The only surprise the entire way through the pandemic is they managed to rush a vaccine into mass production in ~12 months rather than a couple of years (very much a record!).

Even with that good news the damage from the lockdowns may not have been worth it, the world is re-emerging into a rather unstable environment with a lot of nervous people that looks ripe for WWIII. It is debatable whether the government interventions were actually a good idea, we don't have the full picture of what the costs were. I'd still rather have seen them pushing out honest, current information and then letting individuals make decisions for better or worse.

> then letting individuals make decisions for better or worse

That sounds a lot like anarchy to me. I believe we invented laws (and religion before that) exactly because individuals can't be trusted to make informed decisions in certain cases.

I don’t know what your culture claims, but freedom isn’t a privilege, and the only good social contract is a voluntary one. Things are never going to work otherwise in the US.

I think about these issues a lot in my spare time. I am curious if you have any favorite modifications/alternatives to democracies.