[ghaff]

In spite of lots of grumbling and non-compliance in some regions, people have adapted to things they said weren't really conceivable last year. Yes, people have (generally) accepted extended temporary restrictions. That said, essentially no one is accepting this as a permanent condition and as people are vaccinated, I have a high level of confidence that people are not going to accept continued restrictions. You are, of course, welcome to do whatever works for you.

People certainly didn't permanently hide out before there were vaccinations against diseases like cholera.

[ravenstine]

I kindly disagree. Although I think we'd see next to no resistance if we were told "this is the new normal, deal with it", in reality we'll all be told "by this time next year" in order to keep people hooked on the hopium and ensure the new paradigm.

For the record, I'm not in support of the prevailing COVID containment strategies. Believe me, I'd love to see politicians face some actual backlash over what's been happening.

[ghaff]

I dunno. Based on the traffic around where I live, I'm probably more conservative than most but come widespread vaccination, I'll vote against any politician who tries to keep things locked down and I (and most others) are already casual around things like outdoor masks that are essentially theater. And that's not even considering all the business and other economic constituencies which are frankly more important to the politicians. For example, many organizations will not tolerate physical events being shutdown indefinitely.

Absent vaccines it would have been more complicated. But, at some point, countries say that they've done what they can and things are as they are.