that COVID is a grave threat, in spite of the evidence.
Didn't you have it early on? Son of a gun. You pulled through it. Go figure. You should be the person here speaking to the need to put this in perspective and not be hysterical and irrational in assessing the relative danger of it.
I said it before: the single best moment of Trump's term was after he recovered from his COVID infection and stated that we should not be scared and that we can recover if we become infected, instead of speaking pessimistically and fearmongering. As a leader, you try to calm people, not alarm people with something like a pandemic. Your tribal leaders, probably wisely, perpetuate fear because the base is composed of millions of people who subsist on fear and catastrophism.