In the initial stages of the the pandemic here in the UK,the government followed the advice fo the chief scientific officer recommended herd immunity strategy , keeping schools and nurseries open ,based on the data and models then avalable.
The chief scientific officer and the government only changed their tune , when a single study from Imperial Universtiy in the UK, came out showing a large death-toll from the virus and pressure from the pubic.
The UK government's initial Coronavirus strategy was not some purely political , whim of the moment thing.