It has nothing to do with people choosing the economy over life. There is a very simple answer for what we have seen in this country in response to Covid. What people are being told does not match up with what they are experiencing. Every single day citizens are told that there is mayhem out there. It leads every newscast. It dominates the internet. You literally can't avoid reading about Covid.
Yet, what people are experiencing, what 99% of the citizens in this country have personally experienced, is almost nothing except the reaction to Covid. The loss of a job. The inability to go to public establishments. The requirement that they wear a mask.
Ask yourself this. Assume no radio, tv, internet, print media or other public news outlets. Further assume there were no responses by the government, that is, no school or business closures, no mask mandates in place, etc...
Would you know there is a current public health crisis occurring? I wouldn't. I doubt 99% of the people would. Unless you are working in a healthcare facility, or something closely associated with it, or unless you were associated with a family where suddenly multiple members died after attending a wedding or funeral or something, you wouldn't have a clue. The people who are actually experiencing the pandemic are a tiny, tiny fraction of the population.
For those of you on this Board who got Covid but don't work in healthcare, you probably would have just assumed it was the flu, a cold, or some strange malady that went away after a week or two.
That's what is going on. You can tell people the sky is falling (and they've been told pretty steadily now for months on end) but until it actually hits them in the head and they experience it, you're going to see large numbers of people fighting rules and mandates, you're going to see hundreds of people attend bottle parties in NYC or go on cruises or travel to relatives homes for Thanksgiving, or whatever. To them, the "problem" is simply abstract.
