"Saving lives" is the answer. I get that. But at what cost?
When I hear people, including Trump, say, "The cure must not be worse than the illness," I don't hear, "The economy is more important than life." If the cure turns out to be worse than the illness, then by definition, it's worse than the illness. And the economy, to a great extent, IS life.
If we have some short-term pain with some businesses failing and higher unemployment for, say 1-2 years, and then afterwards things are pretty much either normal or on the road to recovery, then we can say the "cure" was better than the illness. But if we have 10 million businesses permanently go under and 50 million people out of work for years, resulting in a depression that might make the Great Depression look like a picnic, then the "cure" will indeed have been worse than the illness.
I fear we are already on the road to the latter. Those of you with greater business and economics expertise (probably all of you), please tell me I'm wrong.