One of the big things of the past year was the need to normalize being normal, that ripping off your masks to celebrate freedom was the way to encourage people to get vaccinated. There was this idea that the whole country was being run by the whims of scaredy cat Covid Zero shutins in Brooklyn, and we needed to get out there and party to show everybody that WE'RE BACK, BABY.
As if the vaccine rejectors weren't living their lives basically normally the whole time, as if actual restrictions, aside from mask mandates some times in some places, had been an ongoing issue most places instead of the exception.
All the smartest people in the room always double down when reality intrudes, because they aren't actually very smart and because being told they are wrong is more unbearable than the consequences of being wrong. A lot of Trumps in elite positions, just most of them have the filter that Trump lacked. They don't just tweet it out, but they're coming from the same place.
Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, or at least the worse, was the obvious thing to do but the rich guy in the nice suit can't be wrong about anything. Having the feds in place to backstop any developments, including incompetent and/or under-resourced state and local governments, should have been a big part of the job of the Covid taskforce guy. Instead, "we did the vaccines, now fuck off" was basically it.
I guarantee the policy and comm response right now is 100% devoted to attempting to preserve the illusion that Zients is doing a good job. That's how they roll. Doesn't matter how many people die.
Blaming teachers and The Left was another excellent plan. Good job, everybody.