For me it isn't about the effectiveness or the blame it was that we spent 2 years where many fundamental and basic rights were suspended because of fear. For me it is not about blame it is about reminding people how fragile our rights are and that there are people all to willing and eager to take them.
Combined with the massive redistribution of wealth that happened as a direct result of government action that further widened wealth inequality.
We had an emergency health situation and the government made emergency rules. Those rules were rescinded later when the emergency was reduced, partly because of widespread vaccination. This is not the first time that during a health emergency the US govt at various levels made temporary stringent rules. It turned out that our political argument against the rules is probably why the u.s had a much higher death rate from covet than other industrialized countries.
Why do you believe that? The best available evidence (e.g. the cochrane review) suggests those stringent rules were not effective. Where I live (Japan) there were very few stringent rules and despite a high population density and an elderly population the number of excess deaths in covid waves was negative. Conversely China imposed some of the strictest rules in the world and has had one of the worst affected populations.
Authoritarianism is a very natural human response to a crisis. But the biggest lesson of the Covid-19 era is that it's thoroughly counterproductive. Responding to an uncertain situation, that everyone involved should have known was uncertain, with strict rules, that naturally had to be revised back and forth, destroyed the authorities' credibility, polarized the public, and did a lot of harm. We need to make sure it doesn't happen again.
> Where I live (Japan) [...] the number of excess deaths in covid waves was negative.
Not in 2021 or 2022 according to [1]: "Japan had excess deaths of up to 113,000 in 2022, more than double the figure of up to 50,000 the year before, according to newly released health ministry statistics"
Absent a feasible zero-COVID strategy, which for most countries was never in the books due to their geographical situation, lockdowns have been found to have virtually no impact on reducing the spread of COVID.
You'd have a point if these actions saved lives, but they didn't. And it turns out in some cases, the actions probably led to more deaths, e.g. NY quarantining patients in nursing homes.
I think instead of panicking over temporarily needing to wear a mask on public transit, you would be better served directing your energy against the trillions in handouts to the already wealthy or actual incursions against our rights like the good ol' Patriot Act.
Combined with the massive redistribution of wealth that happened as a direct result of government action that further widened wealth inequality.