[lkrubner]

"Shouldn't such an analysis be the basis of any decisions we make?"

No. We can decided to make decisions based purely on the morality of the decision. Given a death rate somewhere between 1% and 3% the question becomes whether we will accept that many deaths, without taking action. There is no need for a cost/benefit analysis, as we can decide the issue entirely on a moral basis.

[logicchains]

You can't know the morality of the action without modelling all the consequences. Morality is a complex thing, and certainly cannot be determined by just a single number (number of deaths from the virus avoided).

[SpicyLemonZest]

Nobody argues that we should take no action. The question is what specific actions we should take.