I disagree 1000%. There were PLENTY of EASILY accessed sources...Because they're fucking LAZY. It was MUCH easier to "go along to get along." MUCH easier!
I think you're contradicting yourself!

While some people may have just been "lazy", many, if not most of the sheeple were duped by the media coverage and "death clocks" on screen.

You know I love and agree with you--I'm just busting your balls...
Believe me, it was NOT easy to go against the flow.
I wore a mask in stores like WM to "be polite" and to avoid confrontation. I just wanted to do my shopping and get out of there. But many places with
intelligent proprietors did NOT require mask use and I would not. A month or two in, I went to an industrial auction where the auctioneer (owner), most of his staff and about half the participants were unmasked.

If you've never been to an industrial auction, everybody that is bidding walks from item to item and is somewhat packed in so the auctioneer can see them bid. The 6' rule was NOT in effect and most of us gave zero shits...
It took me less than a week to figure out that Covid was a giant scam vastly overblown in order to get Trumpy out of office. NOTHING he did or tried to do was met with positivity by slimedia. Remember the hospital ships and pre-ordering supplies? I wish the Trump of today was there back then. He would have said "Covid is a SCAM! Don't believe the fake news!" because I truly believe he didn't think it was that big of deal.
And looking at the death rates of various maladies like heart attacks and cancer, they ALL dropped to near nothing while Covid jumped to crazily inaccurate levels due to misinformation from many sources.
And unfortunately, we haven't spoken in 5 years.
I'm sorry about that.

Might I suggest you give her a call? Life is too short to not keep in touch with family...