We’re stuck in a meme. It goes round and round in a circle: New Variant -> Surging Cases -> Lockdowns + Further Restrictions -> Vaccination or Another Booster -> Slight Reopen -> New Variant. Each time we come around full circle we have less freedom left than the time before. It works like tightening a ratchet.

The circular field we are playing on allows the referees to keep moving the goalposts indefinitely.

On a tip from KirklesWorth.