Well bodies piling up faster than they could be taken care of like in Italy would definitely be a bad thing. But you make a good point.

IF the shutdown of the economy and social distancing actually works and reduces the overall rate of infection and deaths, then something has been gained.

If it spreads the suffering and deaths out so they are better handled by the medical and mortuary industries that is a gain (at a great cost to the economy)

But if it only spreads out the deaths and sickness, but ultimately nearly everyone is exposed and has to suffer whatever consequences the disease offers, then there is really no savings in life even though some people get to live maybe several months longer (in self imposed isolation - is that really living?). So if we ultimately have the same number of premature deaths because of the virus (we all die some time - just a matter of when) but spread them out say over 18 months instead of 3 months, is that a worthwhile cost to society compared to what will happen to all the people who no longer have jobs, the number of businesses that will be bankrupt and closed, additional government control over our lives and the social unrest that remains to be seen how people might react to prolonged isolation? How long will people put up with personal isolation? Humans are herd animals. How long before the herd self imposes getting back together and ignoring mandates? (already a fair number of people ignoring it, how long before a lot more join them?)

I don't know the answers to those questions. But we definitely are living in interesting times. No easy answers.

John