Now Fauci is out arguing for mandatory *******s for domestic air travel, and never getting rid of masks.
Where did he get the authority to advocate or enforce anything? The NIH is not a regulatory agency; it has zero such power. It's a research organ. For that matter neither does the CDC have any authority beyond recommendations except in very limited circumstances such as infestation (e.g. literal bugs, not viruses.)
Why has anyone put up with this crap?
There is no reason to. There is no lawful authority for such to be imposed. There never was.
There was also never any authority behind "two weeks to slow the spread"; I remind you that the entire premise of that was to prevent a hospital overload. As I pointed out at the time unless hospitals are prepared to and will offer actual therapy that makes a difference in outcomes there is no point whatsoever to trying to "flatten the curve"; indeed, the least-destructive economic outcome is had by taking the death and morbidity all at once because when it clears it will be obvious and that does the least damage psychologically.
Stretching out inevitable pain and the demise of many makes the psychological harm much greater than it would otherwise be; thus such a "strategy" is intentionally harmful. Dead is dead and if I'm going to be dead let's get it over with instead of torturing everyone including our nation's children for two years first.
Let's make it simple with a scenario that everyone can understand. I have you strapped to a chair that is bolted to the floor 30' below ground and 10 miles from anything; nobody can hear you scream and there is no hope of rescue. I offer you a choice in your manner of death and pledge to honor your request; either I shoot you in the head with the gun I produce and show to you is in fact loaded or I cut off your flesh with an Xacto knife that I have in my hand one bit at a time until you die.
Which do you choose, assuming you're convinced I'm psychotic (or angry) enough that I mean it and will do it? Duh.
The government in concert with business owners did the latter to you on purpose and profited mightily from it at the same time.