You make a good point; another possibility is the COVID clingers all see the end on the horizon and are grasping at straws trying to take advantage of one last opportunity to admonish/control people.
The past 5 years have seen constant, back-to-back gaslightings. And, I am surrounded by people who think it's all normal.
A busybody at my place of business revels in dangerously libeling unvaccinated people as "plague bearers". The world is so filled with comfortable useful idiots like that who have NO IDEA how much ego death (or worse) awaits them when/if they find out they were duped.