[cmrdporcupine]

One of the issues that I see looking back was authorities not recognizing the qualitative change that happened when Omicron came on the scene. It spread like wildfire, and its symptoms were relatively mild especially for those who were vaccinated. And at that point the sensible policy choice would have been to drop many of the mandates, but in many places they just doubled down harder and I think it was this final few months that led to the most extreme backlash.

[jleyank]

There was no guarantee it was the last significant mutation. Long Covid is a thing which many are still fighting, so delaying eliminating restrictions was a safe decision. Vaccine uptake was not uniform.