Soooooo... If you were somewhat pragmatic, you'd acknowledge that a lot of people, maybe even a majority, actually support various social distancing measures and shutdowns. These measures certainly have a negative economic impact, irrespective of whether a negative economic impact would happen just due to the voluntary measures of these people.

And regardless, wouldn't it be a net gain to deploy a vaccine? It would certainly be more effective at placating this group of people than implying they're all idiots.

It would be a huge benefit towards resuming a relatively normal society, regardless of whether they're right or whether they're somehow all just a bunch of nervous morons. So why would you criticise it?

Countries that didn't enforce strict lockdowns do worse economically

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/to-save-the-...