Dear Neville,
That logic was very much in place. Priority was placed on stopping the spread in a haphazard bureaucratic fashion. The primary logic was to give time to develop remedies and disperse equipment. If what we actually saw happen was a cultural reaction or the clinical intention is beyond my research capabilities.
But the more the dust settles it’s more and more apparent that the USA really bungled this whole thing. (And I don’t mean that as a political indictment or endorsement. Americans struggled with adversity on a national scale. For maybe the first time in it’s history.)
PS If people wouldn’t have been sick for so long – and the same small percentage died, there wouldn’t have been any shutdown.