At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments were cautious about taking drastic action. I don’t blame them. For one, several previous warnings of catastrophic pandemics and mass fatalities didn’t eventuate. Another reason is that democratic governments should be instinctively reluctant to take away people’s freedoms. But the main reason was because banning human contact – be it travel or office work or gyms or restaurants - means banning economic activity. With terrible consequences.