I was in Virginia during most of the pandemic and I have not seen or experienced any of what you’ve said. The government responded a little later than other countries on imposing restrictions. I distinctly remember being in charge of a small group of individuals who worked in close proximity, all concerned with their health and being unable to do much about it because the government had not yet pushed down any actionable information. This was during the Trump administration by the way.

Cloth masks weren’t advertised to be absolute protections against COVID. Again, the information passed down meant to demonstrate that masks would be one tool in your toolbox meant to help mitigate the spread of the virus. We all know that peeing your pants doesn’t prevent urine from escaping. It does help reduce the amount that gets on the person sitting next to you. Even better if they’re wearing pants too, as some of those airborne droplets get trapped at the cloth layer before making contact with your skin.

Fauci did not have trust because he was actively admonished by around half of the US population. The expert was not treated as such by numerous non-experts. Not too much to say here. We cannot place absolute trust in others as a level of healthy skepticism keeps us from moving forward, even in science, but you do need to be able to exercise critical thought and the possibility that you may be wrong. I’ve seen none of the latter.

I think what really sucks is that those who chose to ignore the COVID guidance died in higher proportions than those who did not. I guess they died according to their principles.