I think you’ll find that government are playing a big numbers statistical game in policy formulation and decision taking whereas the bulk of the population are generally not savvy on stats or big data theory and see only small numbers ie the impact on them, their family, their friends and their workspace contacts. Within a big numbers game individuals only matter in so far as they contribute to the outcomes at whole population level and there is wriggle room to varying degrees that allows for the idiots amongst the population to misbehave within the bounds of NHS spare capacity but not drive R above the magic number (ie less than 1). But the government also has to get its messaging right ie aimed at individuals and their group, and policy cannot overtly drive to herd immunity because that’s not nice in our fluffy world even though as Peter says there may never be a vaccine. Hence it’s dilemma central for the decision makers. What seems to me to be clear though is do something small is better than do nothing at all.
