Sorry, but your criticism is misguided. Hotez is talking specifically about the anti-vaccine movement, which was literally dead wrong about the safety and effec

Sorry, but your criticism is misguided. Hotez is talking specifically about the anti-vaccine movement, which was literally dead wrong about the safety and effectiveness of the COVID vaccines. You are equating that to (presumably) quibbles about effectiveness of masks and quarantines, where most governments erred on the side of caution. Those are simply not the same things. The government response was calibrated based on what the scientific consensus was at the time, and whoever followed those guidelines (including vaccination) had a much lower chance of suffering and dying in the last two years. The other "side" was trying to convince people to try hocus-pocus medicine and avoid the only effective strategy for prevention.