I think your analogy breaks down because the slug control measures actually being recommended and implemented is one supported by gardeners from all over the world and has been proven to eradicate slugs when done properly.
If it were all a social experiment, why would tiny governments with excellent public health resources and brilliant scientists and doctors that are outside of the US orbit - like Cuba for example - implement the same or very similar social isolation policies? It's happening around the world simultaneously and the simplest explanation makes the most sense: to stop the spread of a virus that can easily overwhelm a nation's health systems.
Everything is a concern. Because our governments largely exist to serve elite interests there is reason to be skeptical of everything they do, but it doesn't mean everything they do is by definition wrong. Sometimes elite interests and the public interest coincide. And has Ken has pointed out, the UK and the US governments are run by extreme right-wing governments whose first instinct was to ignore the threat, and only implemented shutdowns and isolation policies reluctantly. They were also two to be hardest hit.
Anyway, it's a very difficult time we're living through and sorting fact from fiction has never been more of a challenge.