The whole debacle involved a hilarious amount of flip floping and gas lighting that all the counter orders were not actually counter orders. 'Both sides' only

The whole debacle involved a hilarious amount of flip floping and gas lighting that all the counter orders were not actually counter orders. 'Both sides' only makes sense in an US context if you pretend there are two sides. It was a 'gatekeeper' issue. Where hysterical and panicing gatekeepers tried to keep people in line. Then in the confusion predictably evolved into a 'two sides'® as done in the US of A issue, like say abortion, 'vaxxers' etc.