because what’s more likely to get the “elite” killed: slow boiling genocide or one where everyone is dropping like flies?
Imho this was a beta test on obedience.
Our rulers wanted to know what percent of the populace (including demographic details) could be brainwashed to do something really dumb (experimental vaccine) with 24/7 propaganda and some coercion or threatened coercion.
With that information they can work to improve their propaganda techniques on the rest of the sheeple.
While they eventually backed off on the coercion they waited long enough to give them time to evaluate its effectiveness in various sectors.
“Oh sorry sheeple. We didn’t really mean it.”
They think we are their pet lab chimps.