Very few people anticipated such a shocking development. It was the onset of a new state-conducted war and the enemy was something we could not see and hence could be anywhere. No one has ever doubted the omnipresence of potentially dangerous pathogens but now we were being told that life itself depended entirely on avoidance of them and the only guide going forward would be public-health authorities.
Everything changed. Nothing is the same. The trauma is real and lasting. The claim of "15 Days" was revealed to be a ruse. The emergency lasted three years and then some. The people and machinery that did this are still in power. The pick to head the CDC has a long track record of enabling and cheering the lockdowns and all that followed.
It's a helpful exercise to summarize the new things we've all discovered in these years. Together they account for why the world seems different and why we all feel and think differently now than we did just a few years ago.
Comment: The US DoD is, slowly-slowly, opening up on "UAPs" (formerly known as UFOs). Prepare yourself for the biggest mind-job in the history of the human species. Watch, listen and, most importantly, don't believe a word you see or hear.