The line we’ll likely hear is this: Your polling must really be in the tank if you’re conceding we were right all along!

The claim will be that Democrats are just running scared from political reality, not responding to how the Omicron wave unfolded or the inevitable need to transition to a longer-term, endemic response to COVID-19 and its future variants. The right will insist the left has always wanted to impose its will on the country, forcing everyone to don masks and curtail their activities, and only now is preparing to back down from its “soft totalitarian” footing with great reluctance in the face of a surge of popular resentment.

This is mostly projection. Democrats have actually adjusted their positions quite a lot over time as public health authorities have learned more about the virus, how it spreads, whom it kills, and how many Americans would take advantage of widely available and effective vaccines. They’ve also learned things from the highly contagious but less deadly Omicron wave. Those lessons are the very reason views are now beginning to change (among public health officials and office holders, as well as in the public at large).