I'm not sure about the author, but certain about many commenters here, that popular opinion and scientific standpoint are confused. Being charitable to the author, I feel they are writing about popular opinion, politics and zeitgeist and the sudden change in them - people just suddenly surrendered. Many commenters are defending the changes in scientific position, which is something else altogether - and nowhere near as sudden. With science, as should be, when the data changes, the conclusions change - and in a pandemic, what the response of the people is and is likely to be, is part of the data. The science is solid and sees only small, incremental change, there is no surrender there.