>> I am completely bewildered that even if we could compare this pandemic to the flu season
Original estimates were that several million people in US would have died if no measures were taken. These estimates sounded over the top, but seem to be close to reality. Not even counting, how more virulent COVID would have become if it were allowed to run wild. Note the country names that are now sanitized from the variant names: British, Indian, Brazil, South Africa. There are (so far) no German/US/French/Canadian/Japanese/Ozzy variants because many countries dealt with the issue.