Often overlooked is the fact that COVID hospitalizations by age group are pretty evenly distributed. While it's true that deaths predominate among older folks, there are currently as many 18-49 age group hospitalizations as those over 65. Add in the 50-65 age group and you have even more.
Throw in the people who stay home sick for several days but aren't hospitalized, and you have a pretty good-sized slice of working people whose absence has done a lot to screw up the supply chain.
Also, COVID has killed over 210,000 people under the age of 65 in the US. Dead people can't work (as far as we know...).
I realize you were half-joking, but it'll be interesting to see whether that's in fact true, when the statistics are analyzed. I have my doubts.
There have also been a ton of working mothers who were stuck at home, home-schooling their kids. That's a lot of lost productivity, and several I know personally decided to bite the bullet, quit their jobs, and just work part-time (if at all).