In 2020 we had 2 Covid factions on FR: the fear bros (we’re all gonna die!!!) and the flu bros (relax, it’s just the flu). BTW, just like you, millions of Americans have also taken “reasonable precautions” regarding Covid. Many of them have opted not to believe a govt. body of unelected bureaucrats who’ve consistently moved the goal posts over the last 20 months and are now trying to force us into getting an unapproved emergency use vaccine. That decision should be their prerogative and nobody else’s business.
With all respect, I don’t believe that it’s ‘just the flu’. I think government hasn’t believed that either, regardless of the fact that some factions have co-opted it for distinctly political purposes.
I don’t think Trump would have shut us down for even two weeks without some intelligence suggesting that this was very new and ‘different’.