I think we are hearing from the silly extremes at both ends of the spectrum. We have on one end people who consider masks and/or vaccines to be an intolerable imposition regardless of the public health consequences. On the other, we have vaccinated, mask-wearing people who seem to live in terror of the relatively small but measurable risk to them of the noncompliant; or that the scoffers will serve as Petrie dishes for new variants, which is probably true, although there are many other countries where that could happen even if the entire US were to be immune.

And we also have those who rather cynically use the disease as a cover for attacking politicians or their supporters, or as a distraction from other issues. This is where most of the silliest namecalling comes from.

Personally I think there are many areas where some of us impose risks on others at some level, and that we need to carefully consider how much “free dumb” we are willing to sacrifice for what may be an illusion of absolute security.

My guess is that Covid will eventually become endemic at some level similar to the flu. Like the flu, it will kill a certain number of us every year, but I doubt we will see calls for sweeping government powers to control it.