I think the underlying concern has always been about preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed leading to unnecessary deaths. In most countries we don't reall

I think the underlying concern has always been about preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed leading to unnecessary deaths. In most countries we don't really attempt to stop influenza from spreading every year but it rarely overwhelms our hospital and ICUs, it does occasionally. But we know with COVID-19 that it does overwhelm hospitals and ICUs. Lombardy Italy as an example, an area with higher ICU capacity than the average city in Australia, but they didnt have a chance to stop it as it took them by surprise. So the ICUs were overwhelmed, and the death rate climbed to about 14%, so more than 10 times the mortality rate we have seen in Australia. There were people being cared for in tents and in ICUs there were 4 patients to one ICU nurse compared to the usual one on one care - hence survival drops. Same in India, the rapid rise in cases meant they ran out of simple treatments like life-saving oxygen. So that's the main reason for the massive response to COVID-19. Secondary reasons could be to try to prevent the impacts of long-covid, some people will never be the same. You could also consider that suppression of the virus protects the medical, nursing, and other staff from the horror of working in such overwhelmed conditions. Doctors in Italy and other places that were overwhelmed had to ration treatment, denying intensive treatment to people who might have lived another 20 years if the hospital was not overwhelmed. I think most people in Australia would agree we don't want to live in a place that has to pile bodies into refrigerated trucks outside of hospitals because undertakers are overwhelmed.