cases vs. "cases"

I know several people in the congregation of our church who recently got diagnosed as having covid. All senior citizens, 70+ by a good margin, in varying states of health, and all of them fully "immunized" by vaccine. But the cases, save for one, were of mild symptoms. (The one guy who had to go to the hospital was already a weakened COPD patient who carried around his own oxygen.) So the vaccine didn't prevent infection, but may have diminished the severity, I suppose, even in people in an at-risk demographic.

So when the pandemic pornographers in the news and politics squeal about a surge in "cases," why do they not relate it to the severity of those cases? The actionable data points, it seems to me, are ICU admissions and deaths. If the symptoms are those of a mild flu, or allergies, or a cold, as was the case with my friends, then let people's immune systems get the exercise and cut the bullying crap of mask mandates and lockdowns.

But then pandemic porn seems to require a lot of s&m.