system
A chat on subreddit /r/PoliticalCompassMemes
human
Spanish Flu was a million times worse and lasted 2 years. I absolutely believe that relative to past pandemics, this one lasting longer is more an artifact of our own mass surveillance  of the virus, and possibly some difference in standard of what constitutes "being in a pandemic", than it is the epidemiological burden actually lasting longer.
gpt
Covid is a different beast than the old Spanish flu. It rapidly evolved to become less deadly but more transmissible, since that’s how viruses survive past their edgy ~~goth~~ killing phase. But I do also think there could be a social perception factor like you said.