The unfortunate thing about the Covid pandemic is that there isn't a clear moment where it's over and life is back to normal. The challenge countries face is picking a time based on their own conditions when the balance shifts so that it is no longer worth it or morally right to impose damaging restrictions on people's lives.
This has been clear since before the outset of the pandemic. Governments do not have a history of forfeiting powers they gain in the name of protecting "public health", "homeland security" or whatever other jargon is driving the current political moment.
Unfortunately, public health bureaucrats and the academic-medical research complex have every incentive to prolong the pandemic in the name of perpetuating their own relevance. The media plays along in promoting panic to drive more engagement/views. Liberals, who are self-reportedly more likely to trust established media and "science", are complicit in this.
Do you actually believe that that is in fact happening?
It is not a conspiracy to note that a prolonged, constant state of COVID-19 fanactism stands to personally, professionally, politically and monetarily benefit many individuals who have made their careers as public health bureaucrats, research physicians, and/or medical journalists. It is easily observable how people, from Tony Fauci to Andy Slavitt, have relished in the celebrity and new influence the pandemic has brought them. They will not easily give it up.
Of course, this kind of rent-seeking behavior is not something that is unique to the COVID crisis or this particular subset of the technocrat class. But it's much more dumbfounding to see people oblivious to this reality than it is to hear even the most anti-vax conspiracy theories or whatever.
