Take comfort in the fact that the maliciously ignorant already punish themselves in a thousand little ways every day. However, no amount of comeuppance will cause those people to recognize their own actions as the source of their problems.
It was for the flu. Of course from what I understand Covid is worse than the flu. But in most western countries, during the flu season, it is (or at least was) acceptable to not get the vaccine, not wear masks, etc. Old people were expected to get vaccinated since they were the most vulnerable, but even that was on a voluntary basis. So there are some cases where writing off people as collateral damage is an acceptable public policy.
2017-2018 - 61,000 Deaths in the US from Influenza with NO masks or vaccines or lockdowns
2020-Present - 651,000 Deaths in the US from Covid with masks, vaccines, lockdowns, distancing, etc.
Even with those numbers being off think of the difference there and why one should be a little more push for the Covid vaccine.
If i had to choose between getting the flu and getting covid i will choose the flu every time. Would anyone choose differently?
It doesn't look like it will be, but it'd be nice.
I actually think all the contact tracing stuff would do it. If we had zero tolerance for colds and flues -- we quarantine everyone who gets them and their contacts -- we'd end up at close to zero cases, and close to zero actual quarantines.
I actually think steady-state, we'd need fewer quarantines than the number of people flu kills. Flues kill 60k per season. I think 60k quarantines would be more than adequate for containing it.