THE PEOPLE BEGIN TO SAY NO.

It's easy enough to point to errors by the Credentialed Experts.

Sooner or later, they lose their authority.

Perhaps the only thing worse than being subjected to seemingly arbitrary and intrusive rules imposed to fight a pandemic is when those same rules fail to accomplish their goals. Instead of effective infectious disease control, you get fatigue with commands issued by officials who seem to have no idea what they're doing, as we're seeing during the COVID-19 crisis. Given the resulting pushback against ineffective, nonsensical rules, expect widespread cynicism toward official dictates to linger after the virus is history.

When Ronald Reagan cracked wise about "I'm here from the government and I'm here to help you," that came from the domain of lived experience.  "Beyond the human cost of COVID-19, government credibility is a victim of this pandemic. It's unlikely to recover anytime soon, no matter how the health crisis itself is resolved."

So mote it be.