I think what I thought was particularly clever is that they bribed enough of the population that they willingly bought in. If you just shut everything down with no stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment, work at home options , Sba and Fema loans and grants ect ect people would have said f this and demanded the economy be reopened immediately. As it was alot of people knew it was bs but getting paid to sit on their ass was too tempting. Same with the hospitals. Surely they knew it was a load, but oh damn that sweet sweet covid money. Were a fair amont fully captured by the psy op? Of course, but many more just played the game because it was comfortable and profitable.