I still have a fundamental (emotional/gut) instinct that this is all overblown and possibly borderline humbug, but since it seems to benefit literally no-one and perhaps more importantly be completely unpredictable as to its outcome, it is very difficult to find any usual suspects' motive. It is obviously very bad for virtually all economies and countries, it is equally obviously viciously "anti-globlist" given its effects on borders, ethnic suspicions etc. Add to that the massive blow to all governments who either overdo under underdo things, and the fact that if the consequences are bad but not apocalyptic, there will be millions of people who hold either opinion at the same time (=populist golden moment). If you want to tinfoil hat this one, it would have to be something like "Western intelligence agencies trying to stunt Chinese growth" or "USA/Israel trying to break/limit China and Europe", and it just seems a bit much and too stupid for me.
All this would indicate that we have no choice but to revert to taking things at face value. The problem is then that there is no "face value" upon which to take things. The experts and officials we are supposed to trust once we ween ourselves off of fake news and online hatred contradict each other at every turn, with numerous respectable researchers quoting "50-70% infection rates" even while others says we should all just keep calm and keep going to the local swinger party. Geopolitically, the battle lines are all screwed up - basically you have a restrictive/cautious team consisting of among others China, Italy, Denmark, the Ukraine and Norway, and the "flatten the curve and chill out, bro" countries consisting of such ideological buddies as Boris' UK, Sweden, Germany and Trump's USA. And, obviously, all these governments have their opponents in the form of online haters and resisters, which means you can now find German and Swedish far right people posting the exact same information and arguments as US progressives (Bidenites and radicals alike). It's all very odd, and somewhat hilarious, but it does not make things easier to understand.
