Still after all this time none of the supporters of the shutdown have given a halfway coherent reason for why we don’t shutdown to prevent 50,000 people from dying from the flu each year. Here are the reasons they do give, and they’re all stupid:

“Hospitals aren’t overrun by the flu”

Irrelevant. Also not true. Sometimes hospitals are. But anyway the point is that 50,000 or so people will die. If the shutdowns prevent covid deaths and save lives (which is what we’re told), the same would happen for the flu.

“There’s a vaccine for the flu.”

Irrelevant. Even with the vaccine available, 50,000 die. We could prevent or mitigate that with a shutdown (according to your logic), yet we don’t even consider it.

“Coronavirus is not the flu.”

Irrelevant. You say we’re saving lives right now. Why wouldn’t we save the lives of people who die from the flu? Also, they’re both respiratory illnesses. They’re not the same but stop pretending they’re not even similar.

The logic here is inescapable. You say the shutdowns save lives therefore the shutdowns are good. Well, if they prevent death from this virus they would prevent it from any other virus, and therefore a shutdown in response to any virus should also be good.