Most jurisdictions in Western countries adopted “balanced-containment” strategies regarding COVID. This approach is characterized by the ambition to balance, on the one hand, the number of coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths and, on the other hand, the economic and social disruptions caused by strict infection control measures such as lockdowns (Oliu-Barton et al., 2021). The balanced-containment approach is different from the COVID-zero or elimination approach adopted by Atlantic provinces, New Zealand, China, and others. It is also different from the necrophiliac laissez-faire tried in Brazil and some US states.