[the_snooze]

>We probably kept it all going too far for too long.

That's where I've landed looking back on it. The first month or so of staying home, being overly cautious, and "flattening the curve" made sense given the unknowns. But limiting outdoor gatherings in some contexts but not others (no-go on outdoor parties, but George Floyd protests are fine), keeping kids in Zoom school through 2021, and continued neuroticism even after vaccines were widely available---all that left a sour taste in my mouth.

[01100011]

Remember when it was forbidden to take off your mask on a plane... unless you were eating? Somehow food killed the virus. There was a lot of stupidity.

But I'm also hearing from people who are convinced of a vast conspiracy and believe we knew day one that the lockdowns were a bad idea(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrington_Declaration). But we didn't know. It's tempting to cherry-pick the well reasoned opinions of a minority of experts especially when it backs up your worldview but I'm not having it.

[NicholasGurr]

A lot of the contradictory nonsense was simply a result of the election year. As such, cynical people in power were aware they could make recommendations that would be unhelpful to the incumbent president’s re-election. Low economic activity AND civil unrest were both great factors for getting Trump out.

[g-b-r]

There was even more contradictory nonsense outside the US, in countries without elections in sight