UK Covid death toll

[JOK]

No, that's entirely a figment of your imagination. Repeated ad nauseum.

So apart from shielding, what protections to public health would you put in place?

Masks if you want to, even though there's not much evidence they help.

If that’s the case why do surgeons, doctors, nurses, pathologist, scientists, lab technicians etc. All bother to wear them?

All those people you listed  were wearing them pre-covid yet our Government told us in March that masks were useless.

 From: Gov.uk     Dated 11th May
 “Working Safely During Coronavirus (Covid 19)”
 
“6.1 Face coverings
There is growing evidence that wearing a face covering in an enclosed space helps protect individuals and those around them from COVID-19.”
 
 It was actually the W.H.O. who suggested it was wrong for us Hoi Polloi to wear masks.
Reported on 21st of April.
 
“Current evidence suggests that most disease is transmitted by symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed cases. (Yeh, that proved correct didn’t it in Covid’s case; see point below)
"There is currently no evidence that wearing a mask (whether medical or other types) by healthy persons in the wider community setting, including universal community masking, can prevent them from infection with respiratory viruses."
 
And whether the Government or anyone has suggested they are “useless”, the question still stands, why, if they afford no protection against transmission of viruses and airborne particles, do those people wear them? It was actually the CMO, Chris Witty who said, on the 3rd March, “the public wearing face masks will do little to combat the ongoing outbreak.” Though he did say “More drastic action may be needed further on”.
Also, don’t you think the real people in the know, scientists, not we laymen, may have learned a bit more about this virus in the last seven or eight months and what was considered correct or apt in March has been superseded by that greater understanding? (see the statement from the WHO above)
Even senior figures in the NHS questioned their use for the general population but this may have been due to fears surrounding the adequate supply to medical practitioners.