You're blaming this all on the shutdowns, but really, much of what we're dealing with right now is due to a response by the federal reserve that lasted a lot longer than it should have.

I don't think 'the economy' is worth millions of deaths. The fact that over 1m people died in the US is an absolute disgrace, but had we done nothing, we would have had another 3-4M dead. You really think it's possible to have a functioning economy with that sort of death toll? The actual 'shutdowns' were very short lived. Much of what you're discribing is down to natural human behavior in the face of risk. Even if covid only has a 1% death rate, the rates of long term side effects of infection are what? 10%? That's huge, and 'long covid' is something we're still grappling with today, and will do so in the future.

China is an excellent example of what not to do. After years of zero-covid policies they've effectively given up, let the chips fall where they may, and their economy is getting ravaged as covid burns through their population.