The problem is, COVID19 was essentially a zero-day, an exploit against human physiology we had never seen in the wild before, and didn't know how bad it would be in foresight.

Any response to a novel outbreak that spreads rapidly, like COVID, needs to err on the side of caution initially, until we have better knowledge of the short and long term effects.

And it wasn't a civilization killer, but US excess mortality rate during COVID exceeded total deaths of WWII, among other great cullings. It was worth taking seriously and striving for a competent response.