If we take the Quality-Adjusted Life Years model to be relatively neutral, then lockdowns and other Pandemic Restrictions were a vastly disproportionate expenditure of wealth for the purposes of extending the lives of the elderly. Neonatal intensive care doesn't even come close as an example of ways that society prioritizes the health of the young in terms of QALYs.

I actually cant imagine being this selfish. If i was 85 and living in a nursing home, the idea of society protecting my last couple years of life at the expense of millions of children's childhood seems insane.

never mind that fact that covid policies made those peoples lives a living hell anyway. Absolutely crushing loneliness because visitors werent allowed and they werent even allowed to see their families as they were dying. Unfathomably cruel, and for what purpose?

It's very dependant on culture, slavic elders used to go into the forests forever once they notice that they should require daycare soon.