In March of 2019 I made a comment online pointing out that US work culture wouldn’t respond effectively to COVID and that soon we would be right back to sending people to work sick because the God Economy matters more than public health.
The reason everyone is rolling their eyes is because no one ever really took it seriously. Those with the most money were able to get treatments and isolate themselves easily. They still are able to. The number of CEOs who demand return to office while also not showing up to the office themselves is quite high.
We were always disposable. There are effective ways to continue to handle this, but no one in charge wants to spend time or money on those things.