So how real is the threat of massive healthcare worker shortages in the next several years causing further issues if something like this were to reoccur? Because they're the ones most at risk here, regardless of their age group or previous illnesses, doubly so with the widespread lack of protective gear or any sort of reserve that would allow them some sort of rotation so you don't get burnout and exhaustion further lowering their chances.
Even worse, I don't think I've seen this discussed anywhere at all, despite it being the worst possible consequence of this whole thing since it'd leave a whole lot of people at even greater risk just from regular injuries or treatable diseases since you'd have greatly reduced doctor numbers for a few years at least until the education system catches up somewhat.
Not sure what you are asking here to be honest.
Is this a question about how, as a society, we could prioritize and provide incentives for medical staff?
One of my hopes for this situation is that it somehow manages to shift culture from "immediate profit" to "let's do things a little bit less efficiently in the short run, so we are more stable across all situations." This is very visible in the US, but it's not limited to that geopolitical boundary - almost all countries did not have enough "spare" medical or other capacity for this type of event.
We need to shift from "savings is bad, we need to get people to spend" to "no, really, savings is good." Low interest rates for a decade means personal savings is even less than it usually is, making the financial impacts worse for individuals.
No concept of savings or stockpiles of medical supplies - and in fact structural penalties for having such stockpiles - has made the medical impact worse.
Barriers to entry to becoming medical professionals - means we have no "savings" in staff capacity. Regulatory limits on the required bed utilization - no "savings". (This is one side effect of rules like "must spend 80% of insurance premiums on care" - it meas there is a penalty to build spare capacity!)
Basically the key to all this is "live not just within your means, but below them." And not just as an individual, but as a society.