Agree with the central theme, but I think you'll find that the time taken for deaths to show up is the same once it gets amongst those who are high risk - And that is in itself part of the point. You just don't see 'any' deaths until it hits the high risk - The low risk are truely low risk (not just low risk relative to the high risk).
As for long haul - how about we frame this differently. Recovery time for covid can be way way longer for some people than would be the case for the flu, so yes some degree of caution is undoubtedly required.