All well said. Part of the problem is risk aversion - we're really at a point where no public servant or corporate type has any incentive to be anything other than hysterically risk averse. They have nothing to gain and everything to lose by "taking chances" or ignoring the slightest, most trivial risk.
Add to that the amount of money and jobs that depend on continued covid fear and rituals, and it's not going to go away easily.
I've said for the last 20 years that the endgame of how wussy we've become as a society is us (the west) losing a war, and I still think this (although recently I think we've already lost and we just haven't really processed it yet). The only way this ends completely is with us being conquered and then hopefully western values gaining a hold again at some distant point in the future once authoritarian society rots to the point that it loses its power.
Add to that the amount of money and jobs that depend on continued covid fear and rituals, and it's not going to go away easily.
I've said for the last 20 years that the endgame of how wussy we've become as a society is us (the west) losing a war, and I still think this (although recently I think we've already lost and we just haven't really processed it yet). The only way this ends completely is with us being conquered and then hopefully western values gaining a hold again at some distant point in the future once authoritarian society rots to the point that it loses its power.