I think one issue is we were told after somebody gets both shots they are still required to wear a mask, dine outdoors, socially distance, have their office closed, etc. It causes some people to feel there is no reason to get the shot.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/annual...
https://mobile.twitter.com/guscost/status/134299803981702758...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22908490
Taiwan's had 1070 cases! And concerts and mostly normal life.
(do note that I'm not calling for endless lock downs there, I'm calling for control measures that we didn't really work very hard to put into place; we could have done a lot more to reduce household and workplace spread and so on)
There is also mathematical evidence that compares the probabilistic error rates of COVID replication to the amount of mutations already encountered and it is looking good for us. COVID mutation rates are very high and most if not all have been encountered in humans. While some resist anti-bodies better it appears that none will do so entirely and thus COVID will devolve to a "common cold" as humans themselves are selected out (multi-generationally) for higher amounts of resistance.
It's basic biology in action.
It is important to remember that almost all diseases work this way (possibly ALL diseases if we could morally afford the extremely high death rates of some of them e.g., a 99.9% death rate for some diseases like rabies).
It sounds like you feel there is or was some sort of bargain going on.
I think I recognize the feeling. For instance, I went for about a decade with no cavities, and I continue to go to the dentist every six months, so I have felt like there was a bargain in some sense - brush and floss and get a checkup regularly, and I won't have any problems.
But in between x-rays, it turns out I had some serious decay and had to get a root canal.
This produced a strong feeling of betrayal, but at the same time, it's obviously childish and irrational to feel this way, isn't it? I wasn't betrayed by my dentist. Just by fate, if you will.
I do not believe either the dentist in the analogy or the public health officials can actually know with any certainty what will happen in the future. Which is why I do not believe they just have made the statements they made. They can perhaps provide a sense of what could happen, but that is not what happened.
If the officials just said MAYBE after two weeks we can get back to normal if XYZ have happened then I, and many others, would have far less issues. We would understand that XYZ needs to happen prior to returning to normal. The problem is they explicitly said we just need to do X to get back to normal.
When can we actually go back to normal? There doesn't appear to be an explicit end goal that hasn't changed.
Our public health officials said just stay at home for two weeks and we can get back to normal. Then don't wear masks. Then always wear a mask. Next it was just wait until it gets warmer in the summer. Then it was just wait until the vaccine. Now some of them are actually saying wait until there are no new cases despite also saying that it will be with us forever and will become seasonal like the flu. If they actually want no new cases and if this does become a seasonal thing then we will literally never return to normal. That is the problem that many of us see. If they were just honest and straight forward with us from the beginning and may not argue we should remain locked down forever there would be far less issues.
It is a feeling. How do I know? Because you use the vague phrase "public officials".
When people are talking about a group that is not specific, they are necessarily talking about feelings as facts don't constrain it.