But was it "government" that decided to warehouse the elderly in "nursing homes"?
It is the structure of the homes, and the employment in them (and disgustingly, the profit margin expected in many), that caused a situation whereby "the government" has had to employ measures to try and prevent a devastating number of deaths in nursing homes from a pandemic. A similar sort of situation occurs for weeks at a time every winter during flu season. If this pandemic had been handled the same way as the annual flu season (where institutions are only in lockdown if there are residents of the home with active cases), probably would have worked better; because I do agree that a week or two at a time is tolerable, but months on end is endless.
I think that your cart is in front of your horse. The problem you identify is less with pandemic response than in our general treatment of the elderly (out of sight, out of mind, low in value).