The problem isn't just with people dying, it's that covid takes up a disproportionate amount of health resources to treat people.

While comparatively not that many people die in Australia from covid, a lot of of people are hospitalised from it (which lowers the death rates). Keeping infection rates down has allowed our medical resources in Australia to keep up with demand.

What we saw overseas when it was just left to fester, was hospitals turning people away when they were coming in for any treatment and ambulances running out. This has been the fear all along. Say you have a heart attack which is treatable with timely medical attention, but an ambulance just never turns up or you end up in a queue outside the hospital waiting to be seen.