I am seeing a lot of "the virus is only spread by people I disagree with."
I've seen a lot of Trump types on Twitter who are now moaning about "looters spreading the virus" yet were very quiet about the spreading that went on a week or two back, when largely conservative protesters were doing their idiotic and selfish anti-lockdown protests (and not even wearing masks!)
I've also got quite a lot of very nice left-wing people on my FB who have spent a lot of time in the past few months shouting self-righteously at people for doing things like spending socially-distanced time outside, letting their children ride bikes or play bubbles in the park.... yet are now rushing to explain to us all that "when we have a second spike of the virus in a few weeks, don't blame it on the protesters!!" Or just saying nothing whatsoever. They also apparently believe that masks are magic and completely substitute for any kind of social distancing.
Because apparently viruses are these little teeny-weeny people with thoughts and feelings, who carefully refrain from spreading themselves when a crowd of people are gathered for a political purposes that the poster approves of.
It's all so blatantly hypocritical and ridiculous. On both sides.
The long-term consequence is that it will be really hard to ask people to engage in any sort of social distancing ever again. Because it's been politicized.
People who were skeptical of lockdown etc. anyway, are already starting to make comments along the lines of "So, you people who have spent the past couple of months scolding people for going out, you never REALLY believed in this, did you? It's so obvious now that it was just an excuse for virtue signaling and was all about having a socially-sanctioned excuse for shouting at people and acting superior to them."
And it's unfair, because social distancing really IS important. But it won't be taken seriously again after this.
In addition, the message has been sent out that "as long as you have a political excuse for not-social-distancing that sounds convincing enough and ticks a few 'identity-politics boxes,' then it will be excused and the police won't stop you and social media won't shame you." And a lot of people are going to start really pushing the enveloped and more and more people will quickly start to find reasons why they, too, need to break the guidelines.
"If people are allowed to break the guidelines to protest, well, why can't I break the guidelines to engage in work? I need the money because I'm not well off, that's social justice too!" "Going to church is important to me too, I think I should be able to bend the rules as well."
Let's hope the scientists are right and that the virus is getting less lethal, because we now have a lot fewer tools available for dealing with any kind of second wave.