"Doing so severely undercuts the claim that our public health measures were overly authoritarian."

In the US, at least at a federal level, they weren't overly authoritarian because the states prevented it from happening. That doesn't mean for a second that the authoritarian model wasn't the aspirational ambition of the US left. If preventing the next COVID case at any cost wasn't the objective, then there isn't any point. It's very clear that no country employed a COVID policy directed at protecting those at risk, while allowing the rest to live their lives.

Instead, the objective was a more egalitarian response, where if the most at-risk person isn't able to engage in some activity due to the risk of COVID, then no one should be allowed to.