The alternative is to implement incredibly thorough public safety measures like those currently in place in China and Korea, where mass screening, comprehensive and constant public sanitization programs, strict controls on travel and public events, and mass emplacement of new temporary hospitals are in place. Both countries are doing extremely well in controlling the spread of the virus on a per capita basis, and doing well enough that they will probably soon be able to lift those measures piece by piece as long as they also keep tight control of external travel.

This means actually spending money on public health infrastructure, though, so it seems unlikely to happen in the US.

Economic hardship does not kill those under 35. You need to focus on the social good.