What makes you think this is a belief held by a large number of people, rather than a vocal minority?

I am not so much looking at what people are saying rather I am looking at how people are behaving. People are much more relaxed and take time to shop. Some downtowns are quite busy with foot traffic. Those areas have people walking around without masks (supposedly eating or drinking). It is hard to socially distance in those areas.

So we should give up and let the hospitals collapse and an extra few tens of thousands of California residents die?

I was not expressing an opinion as to what to do. Rather I was expressing how I thought people will behave.