Just look around the world. Sweden was the bad boy of the Western world during the pandemic, trying fewer interventions and being more resistant to lockdown than any other country. Their vaccination uptake is behind America’s currently, and they have few public-health restrictions now. Israel, by contrast, imposed one of the toughest lockdowns in a democratic society. It has a slightly higher vaccination rate that is the envy of most other nations. Yet Israel is contemplating a new lockdown.

Compliance with lockdown makes lockdown seem more plausible. It was the United Kingdom that taught this most of all. Professor Neil Ferguson was advising the government. The Johnson government threw away its preexisting plans for dealing with a respiratory-virus pandemic — a plan that included protection for the vulnerable but preservation of liberty for the maximum number — in favor of lockdowns. Of lockdowns, “It’s a communist one party state, we said. We couldn’t get away with it in Europe, we thought . . . and then Italy did it. And we realised we could,” Ferguson said.

This is a question of politics — political culture, the authority of normal life versus the respected authorities in charge of public health. Public-health authorities don’t know how to stop giving you extra-restrictive advice. And they can’t learn how to stop giving it if we don’t learn how to stop asking for it. Or until we start ignoring what they say, and start punishing politicians who translate their guidance into nuisances.