"...what they can't do anymore is prevent transmission."
I don't believe they were ever effective at preventing transmission. In fact, I believe there is a faction of people who want a deadly variant to emerge that will eviscerate populations in the developing world who have not had the opportunity to get the shots.
As for the vacuous slaves who believed, the dynamic going on is that a very large number of influential people who already knew transmission could still occur at a high rate are the liars. Keep in mind that upwards of 15% of the population are psychopaths. But most of those who knowingly spread misinformation were doing so because they consider the masses to be asses who need to be nudged into doing what is for the collective good, which is to minimize death. In their minds, the safest way to do that was through the shots and preventative behaviors.
"...what they can't do anymore is prevent transmission."
I don't believe they were ever effective at preventing transmission. In fact, I believe there is a faction of people who want a deadly variant to emerge that will eviscerate populations in the developing world who have not had the opportunity to get the shots.
As for the vacuous slaves who believed, the dynamic going on is that a very large number of influential people who already knew transmission could still occur at a high rate are the liars. Keep in mind that upwards of 15% of the population are psychopaths. But most of those who knowingly spread misinformation were doing so because they consider the masses to be asses who need to be nudged into doing what is for the collective good, which is to minimize death. In their minds, the safest way to do that was through the shots and preventative behaviors.
Check out the Asch conformity experiments. It's sometimes hard for the people conducting the experiment to suppress their laughter.
Also, the psychopaths know very well how to work together to make dissenters suffer if need be.