Did all that prevent infection or simply spread out the infection propagation from a few weeks to 1.5 years?
Other than that, what do you think would have happened if life continued unperturbed in early 2020? Do you think we’d be over it already? I don’t think that’s correct, to be polite.
Influenza belongs to a different family of viruses called Orthomyxoviridae.
Saying that covid-19 is a strain of flu is like saying that lions are a form of dog.
On top of that, it kept cases down until vaccines became available, cutting down on total possibly infected populations.