CC, did you honestly believe that the virus would "go away" as though by a wave of a magic wand? This isn't something merely irritating, like a bad TV commercial. It is in fact a pretty serious disease. It has been greatly overblown, I grant you, but nobody who has had it and survived will tell you it is just an annoyance.
Second, not a single freedom has been taken from us. We are all more or less voluntarily obeying certain recommendations that will in fact end this sooner than otherwise, and I think most people realize that. When this does taper off to an eventual end (sooner than had we behaved otherwise) all these temporary restrictions will end and people will go back to their normal routines - likely forgetting all this happened at all within a few years, attention spans being what they are.
Except that when things are ceded "temporarily", rarely do those in power return fully those things without a serious fight. Therein is a large problem.
Not only freedoms, but actions like this stimulus check coming out to everyone. I see it as a step to providing UBI which would be an absolute disaster.
As to personally giving up freedoms, I have changed next to nothing in my personal and business life. Exception being those things that are completely out of my control such as no kids' high school sports, delaying some international travel for kids' activities.
