The vaccine mandates were the result of the health care policy making community, so busy fighting the pandemic of the unvaccinated, that fact-checking the false claims that discourage those who yet need to get vaccinated became a great failure. All the while, the clock is ticking where a new variant will undo the protection the present vaccines afford. The threat of an existential virus mutation and the massive false information program against vaccines, has caused policy makers flipping the panic switch for mandates.
It is human nature to use whatever means possible to put COVID in the rear view mirror. The pressure is intense to do anything to get us out of purgatory. The ends justify the means. It is like imposing an universal draft to fight a war for a future when we can return to normal life with all of its freedoms. That did not work so well during the Viet Nam War. Likewise, this will be a hard lesson where we must learn not to trade expediency for freedom.
The result of our self-discipline to follow the Constitution and the call of Liberty, will make us better able to fight a future pandemic through world-class innovation—not totalitarian measures.
Society has become pathologically risk averse, certainly the leaders of government and business have, and that trickles down.
The protection racket industries (law, government, medicine) drive and prefer an afraid public. It increases the customer base, makes some dependent.