The government's role was to get the hell out of the way and let doctors take care of their patients!
In retrospect, you are correct. But based on what was publicly known in early 2020, efforts went towards securing a vaccine, just as they had done for SARS-1 in 2005, annual flu strains, MMR, polio, small pox, etc. The government's role was to ensure there was an option. Unfortunately here, the government made its usual mistake of picking winners and losers.
The bottom line is that we now have a shot that people can get in their typically human attempt to search for the easy way out. But now that there is that option, the government should let each person decide for him/herself what course of action to take. And that includes ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, etc.