I had a similar experience pre-COVID with a middle manager boss I hated.

I was going to be flying in to NY to participate on an advisory group for a very large client, and wanted to fly in early to have dinner with the editor of a trade publication for which social meetups nearly always led to being requested to do a piece, often a cover story.

Well, my middle manager boss wanted to use us as a free case study group for her friend's team building services, and had me instead fly in late so I could be there for the stupid thing.

The real kicker was she wanted everyone on the team in, including the colleague who was home with a 102° fever. I was not happy at all that someone actively sick was going to be in the office, and even went to HR but was effectively told STFU.

So I spent the day "looking around the room with a magnifying glass to see if you notice anything different" instead of dinner with the editor in chief of our industry's trade magazine while actively staying as far as fucking possible from my sick colleague and hating my boss with every ounce of my being.

It was nuts how she used to use company resources for her own gain, and my dislike for her eventually got to the point I would get physically ill the limited times she was actually in the offices.

Had it been COVID days, I can't even imagine how she'd have endangered the whole team.