Right. It seems to have started early, when the President downplayed it and said it will all blow over in a few weeks. IIRC.
He was called to task on that attitude, and everything offered to challenge him was shot down as fake reporting and part of a bigger plan to destroy him, politically.
The science hasn't been very precise in a number of respects, and this just fueled the disbelief.
To this day, there remain many who cling to their beliefs it was politicized and overplayed. Full hospitals mean little to them. The odds of dying from it are very low.
I will just be glad when things start returning to normal. I'm optimistic that by early summer, things will be much better.