If the public isn't on board with something, it'll cost the ruling party dearly. This wasn't like 1918 where the public wanted to help each other by limiting the spread of the disease. This was rugged individualism, "you can't tell me what to do." Dems were honestly smart to get on board or a red wave would have wiped them out.

When we want to change things like this, we have to change the norm in advance, not reactively.

BTW epidemiologists I used to work with at the CDC have long said "the big one is coming" and after Covid, many of them said "this wasn't the big one," so we still need to change that norm, but like climate change and a dozen other pressing crises, we can't deal with it because fascism.