> while the current impact of the virus itself is basically nil
You should read about Italy, and how they're running out of hospital beds. Which means usually non life threatening issues are getting much more serious.
It's not a boolean choice between "saving lives" and "saving the economy"... If you don't do anything: people get sick, sick people can't work, the economy tanks, hundred thousand people die. If you do something, less people get sick, the economy tanks anyway, but less people die. As it turns out it seems like most government prefer prioritizing human life over money.