You could of course turn this around and ask as well:
How are the hysterical people expecting the contrarians to let crippling anxiety take over their lives? And what is it supposed to be good for?
You could ask that, but it would be a stupid thing to ask.
This is a straight choice between two options, both of which are really shitty:
1. Lock down hard and fast, and the economy takes a colossal hit. After several weeks, when new cases have slowed to a trickle, start gradually reopening society. Bring in a substantial surveillance apparatus using as much technology as possible to track and stamp down any new outbreaks as time goes on. In perhaps 18 months, mandatory vaccination for everyone who isn't immunocompromised, with absolutely zero tolerance for antivaxxers or religious exemptions. Don't like the vaccine? Fuck you, you're getting it.
2. Don't lock down, expect society to run as usual. The economy still takes a colossal hit, as anyone who can stay home will stay home, and hospitals become flooded with cases. With inadequate beds, medical personnel and equipment, people start dying in huge numbers. The economy goes down the toilet even faster. States start running out of coffins and storing corpses in industrial freezers. The medical system is reduced to rubble in a matter of months, as thousands of experienced professionals die or break down mentally. Six months later, society faces a totalled economy, a mountain of corpses, a thoroughly wrecked healthcare system and the worst death toll in centuries.
This is not a choice between the economy and the elderly, because
there is no option that doesn't fuck the economy. Whatever we do, we're in for the worst depression since at least the 1930s, and quite possibly the worst since the Black Death. The only choice we get is roughly how many people die while the crash happens.