What would you have had the mass population do? Refuse to be vaccinated? Refuse to work (strike) until all demands for a 'no restrictions' policy were met? Be prepared to be arrested by blatantly going against local/UK government instruction/policy?
For the majority, it's nothing to do with 'unthinkingly abandoning our freedoms', it's about trying our best to get through this safely and being considerate about our fellow citizens. Most people have enough to worry about juggling the day to day.
There are also a lot of unknowns if the masses had resisted doing as instructed to 'maintain our freedoms.' I think current UK deaths are circa 130k. Yes there's a side debate about what constitutes a covid death, however I'll use that figure to make my point. If everyone, or the high majority, had refused to comply with lockdown, refused to wear masks, refused to socially distance and refused to be vaccinated, who knows what the number of deaths might have been. Ok, some will no doubt argue deaths would have been lower due to herd immunity etc. It's equally valid to argue deaths could have been higher, significantly so.
In the case of the latter, would we be saying 'well, it's been worth it' simply to maintain freedoms that some perceive are being eroded?
