The fight against the pandemic is like a religion at this point: lots of rituals that may or may not have anything to do with preventing viral infections

Some examples of what I'm talking about:

Insane obsession with cleaning surfaces, even though we know by now that close contact between humans is how this virus spreads, not surfaces.

If a business in the US finds out that an employee was sick, they shut it down for a few days for "deep cleaning". Again - obsession with surfaces and a ritual sacrifice to the gods of COVID in the form of a temporary closure. Why can't they continue operations as normal, presuming everyone in the business is wearing masks anyway?

Governments insisting on wearing masks outdoors, even though its been proven the virus spreads indoors. Reminds me of religious states mandating that everyone dresses "modestly" in the public.

On the topic of masks - if they work really well, why don't governments insist on people wearing them indoors with their families too, presuming they interact with people outside their household? Aren't your family the very people you're most likely to infect?

Huge controversy around reopenings of sports in the US. Somehow its not okay for multi-millionaire players to risk COVID, but perfectly okay for a minimum wage worker, as long as they get a small "COVID boost" payment. The true reason is of course that you're not supposed to do fun things during a pandemic, just like you aren't supposed to have fun during certain religious holidays.

Banning tourism even though its the locals traveling around that are spreading the virus. E.g. who is more likely to get someone infected - a random woman from China who's staying alone in a hotel and going around Times Square taking photos, or an American flying in from China that goes for dinner with his extended family? Yet somehow the Chinese woman is banned, while the American dude is free to come and go as he pleases.

Its perfectly okay to keep people on lockdown for 4 months, but not okay to mandate that everyone installs a contact tracing app. The argument is "God forbid the governments gets so much power!!!", as if mandating a lockdown in the first place is not an overreach in the first place. Kind of reminds me of how religious rules are internally inconsistent.

Obsession with tests, even if they're useless: contact tracing hasn't been proven to be effective and the tests often take more than a week to get a result. Plus there isn't a cure for COVID beyond resting, so what's even the point of knowing if you're positive or not? But apparently America's COVID problems could be resolved if only we started doing enough tests to get the positive rate beyond the magic 3% barrier.

Denial that immunity is real while at the same time admitting that a vaccine can work. That the two facts are irreconcilable is lost on the disciples of COVID.

Shifting blame between governments and individuals, based on what's currently convenient. I.e. if a person you like gets infected, people tend to blame the government (should've never exited the lockdown, I'm so sorry!). But when someone they dislike gets infected, they blame the individual (should've never attended that political rally, you fool!). That the fault is almost always with the person infected is somehow lost in the conversation.

Constant appeal to authority - Governor X says you must do Z, so we must all do it! Nevermind that what he or she said might be inconsistent with basic logic, what matters is his position. Just like the Pope must be listened to on every topic, as he's infallible. (thanks rockit454)

I'm sure you folks could list more examples of religious obsession in the comments.