There are plenty of tests that test for active infections. That's still the majority being done.

The fear-mongering is absurd and will have costs likely far above those of the pandemic. Part of the hysteria in the US is likely rooted in anti-Trump attitudes (especially considering the STAY THE FUCK HOME crowd poofed for a couple weeks after George Floyd's death), but it seems largely unplanned.

I think at this point, many politicians are afraid to move forward. As long as the pandemic is perceived as a current threat, people won't start getting mad about the economy, livelihoods, the looming mental health crisis, the destruction of kids' education, civil liberties violations, etc because they'll see those as secondary concerns. The minute the average person sees COVID as "over," people are going to be PISSED.

Personally I think that corona is neither a huge deal nor is it nothing. It's a moderately serious issue. The human brain, especially in our garbage media environment, is bad at identifying that middle ground. When I realized the initial narrative was bullshit, I definitely started to swing towards the "fuck this, it's nothing" camp. NY never needed 40,000 ventilators, "exponential growth" never overran our hospitals, the field hospitals were empty, and it turned out that COVID was already all over the West as early as December and no one really noticed. Still, I also remember predicting that this shit would be in the rearview mirror by June, that the death count would never pass 100K, and that there would be no spike in cases (though I think the protests caused this in all areas without functional herd immunity).