If I were to say how the Elite acted like in Covid World, it's basically:

Personal annihilation acceptable as long as opponents go down too.

This is the same scenario as the Khmer Rouge regime where once the Elites ever get their way, even if you just gunned every single one of them down and condemned them to lifetime prison, you will have literally NOTHING left.

4 Billion Dead worldwide, literacy of youth reaching all time rock bottom, survivors coming out with severe PTSD that can never be recovered and urban centers basically becoming inhospitable and will need 2-3 decades of redevelopment.

Which is what they exactly want.