One of the biggest reasons that there is lingering resentment against COVID-19 pandemic mitigation policy is the zealotry of the people pushing that policy. As an example:
From the article:
Pandemic theater did more to damage efforts to get people to mask up than anything mandate opponents said or did.
‪Telling people to mask up when there is 0% chance of spreading the COVID-19 virus to others is treating masks like religious iconography, not as a pandemic mitigation tool.
That is why I was far more pro-mask than these zealots.