I too don't believe that the protests should get all the credit.

But its not Gov following science, at best it's Gov following sentiment. People are right fed up of the overreach and want no more rules around masks, passports and lockdowns. There's no more tolerating restrictions for something that's a minor cold, can be vaccinated against if you are worried or early treated with antiviral using both new and repurposed drugs.

The govt is following advice from scientific advisors. People don't seem to appreciate that much of the weighting for these decisions have to do with hospital capacity, and also that decisions don't shift at a drop of a hat. Your notion of following "sentiment" is complete projection rooted in discontent. It has no basis in reality, and you have fuck all to back it up.

The restrictions have already been poised to be lifted on the strength of said advice. This was already on the horizon and one can only imagine that protestors purposefully decided to move on this on the tail end of these policies.