So they "mandate" a third dose, nothing happens long term, so they do a fourth lockdown, close some businesses again, do some travel bans, tell people to put things on their faces, nothing happens long term, so they "mandate" a fourth dose, do a fourth lockdown...

And then the virus is still everywhere, it's still significantly more dangerous to be outside than it was in February 2020, and now it's a tremendous administrative pain in the arse to do everything, everyone is terrified due to your big marketing campaign, and we all get it anyway repeatedly.

But this time, of course, it'll be different.

> everyone is terrified due to your big marketing campaign

Yeah, a lot of people dying tends to terrify people.

The data has only trended in one direction since the beginning. The response continues to trend in exactly the opposite direction.

This is increasing apparent with Omicron.

Because the promises aren't panning out, and with each stutter step comes another heavy handed proposal (e.g., tracking, vax passports, etc.)

In desperation the public has abandoned "trust but verify." Put another way, given the lessons of history, governments should be trusted less, not more. The default shouldn't not be, "Sure, whatever you say."

Governments are adapting to new information. If you expect government policy to be based on an all-knowing oracle, of course you are going to be disappointed.

Governments are not known to relinquish control once a new baseline of normal is established... so it does seem that they are adapting to new information only when it serves a certain agenda.

Mask and other mandates from the Spanish flu era were relinquished once they were no longer needed. Interestingly, paranoia about such things was as common (and wrong) back then at it is now.

I can only talk for my own country but politicians seem to have been really careful to either couple the laws to an state of emergency which is justified by the pandemic situation or do laws which have a certain due date and need to be renewed by Parlament every 6 monthish.

Unlike national security against an invisible threat the absence of CoViD can be shown in which case government even if showing the behaviour you suggest can be more easily pressured into doing the right thing.

If I said that. If I implied that. Please point it out to me.

It's implied by "government promises". What has your government promised wrt covid? Were such failed promises made in bad faith, or due to the fact that covid is a complex and changing global pandemic without clear answers to anyone?

It's not what's said, but what's also said.

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-heal...

The current cycle smells like insanity among other things. There are plenty of questions. "What questions?" is not one of them.