It is totally unreasonable to compare COVID19 to Captain Trips. The worst plague this earth has seen is the Black death, and wiped out about 1/3 of the population, and COVID19 cannot do that. The super flu in The Stand killed everyone in it's path, except the immune, and it was engineered by the government. The military in The Stand, a work of fiction, knew exactly what they were dealing with, and that there was no hope for the infected to recover. They were doomed to die horrible painful deaths, the soldiers in the story we're doing what that had to try and put a complete stop to total destruction, by cleaning out the infected. At the same time saving them from long drug out painful death.
Sparing them from prolonged suffering. It was urgent and imperative that they act immediately, with no hesitation, they knew they were facing the extinction of the species if they did not. Again, talking about a work of fiction. The Stand just isn't a book that is scary to me. The super flu cannot and will not happen.