There has never been any precedent for the "compassionate" policies seen across the world this year. It was always assumed that there was a reasonable limit to the amount of resources worth spending to save a life. E.g. when safety measures are put in place on a high-way, it is based on a calculation on how many lives it will save and what each life costs. When life-saving procedures are taken at the hospital, it is based on an assessment of the likelihood of a successful outcome.
That logic has now all gone out the window in favour of a hysterical panic-driven approach to risk assessment. This year, we were forced to accept the complete shutdown of the entire world in order to let a minor group of seniors live a few months longer. The cost trade-off is completely absent from the narrative in any media. Most people are very poor at assessing risk, but this year no one can blame them, since it is near impossible to get to the required data to base decisions on.
For example, right now in France, it would have been interesting to understand why three times (15000 vs 5000) as many people are reported as newly infected on a daily bases compared to the peak in March. Meanwhile, there are only a fraction of COVID related daily deaths (70 vs 970) compared to March. I will not hold my breath for any insightful discussion on the topic.