During initial containment china welded apartments shut and organized essentials deliveries by dedicated couriers for each city block. And then there's the option of military-enforced cordons. There are multiple levels of panic left untapped.

That's why I said "most countries", because in (say) the US the government couldn't pull that off even if they tried. (For one thing, it's hard to weld shut suburban housing.)

Perhaps, but if the virus was as transmissible as sars-cov-2, but had a much higher fatality rate (say 60% like Ebola). Then you would get a lot more support for strict measures amongst the general population.

I think Parents point was that eventually we will have to give up on panic mode and accept deaths from this each year.

I said "not lockdowns". I meant things like "strip down the phase testing" etc.

I see no evidence we are doing that.