But no one is "pretending it will just magically go away." You're contending with an obvious strawman here. They're simply judging that we do not need ongoing threats of lockdowns to control a virus with an IFR about 1.5x that of influenza, any more than we ever needed them for the flu.
Authoritarianism can always solve some problems -- always just for "the duration of the emergency" of course (now running well over 2 years in China). "The science" has absolutely nothing to do with the policy tradeoffs involved in deciding whether or not lockdowns are advisable. You're simply begging the question that reducing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 should be the only consideration on the table.
Asset inflation ran quite high throughout QE. The same number of dollars might be obtained by selling half of what one purchased with borrowed money at the start of the program.
In fact, a loan on generous terms which causes the broader market to judge your entire industry as explicitly backstopped by the government, and thus lend you money at lower rates of interest than you would otherwise pay, is a gift that keeps on giving.
If influenza deaths had been counted in prior years the way Covid deaths were counted, they would have been far higher than the figures you cite.