People spontaneously cooperate all the time based on their selfinterests. I don't intend to argue for the commenters position, but this blanket argument against everything that even remotely resembles a 'conspiracy' is not correct.
* All actors are anti-rational (not just irrational, which leads sometimes to seemingly rational actions).
* There's something else pressuring them into taking an anti-rational decision.
I'd be surprised if it's the first, so I ask about the second. Unless the commenter means that killing your own citizens is in self-interest of the state, then leaving COVID run rampant would have been better option anyway.