Doctors and epedemiologists are not Obama or Bill Gates or Nicole Kidman. I've never liked or respected any of those people in my life, and I'm not sure why you think they are inspiring "obedience." That's not where public health directives have been coming from.
Over the last year, hundreds of communities around the world have enacted public health measures based on the imperfect but mostly best information known at the time that those decisions were made. "They" weren't listening to Obama, or the Mayor of Washington. Most of the world doesn't even live in the United States. It's only really in the US where this has been played as some sort of "right" / "left" partisan divide, too.
My points still stand. Most of us have been acting in rational self-interest, not out of "obedience." You're the one being condescending.
"they" = governments and corporate media.
Obama throws a party and nobody is wearing masks. The Mayor of Washington DC has a wedding and gives herself an exception for all the included rules. Bill Gates, etc. don't ever need to quarantine when traveling. If you think Bill Gates isn't traveling much, I can assure you that other media figures such as Nicole Kidman are. [0]
[0] https://news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-quarantine-exemption-nicole...