Who is "we"?
I dimly recall that by September 2020 most things here returned to near normal.
Some people still wore masks and such, but everything was open, without government restrictions. Some businesses chose to remain closed or implement their own restrictions (masks, distancing).
We did not go to Chicago for Christmas.
The world was still in the "what is going to happen next?" phase.
Remember, the piece we're discussing here is a
poll about what people consider to be a "very serious" problem. So we're talking not about government policy re: closures, or masks, or what the economy was doing. We're talking about
public perception.
And in Sept 2021, we were approaching the time of year where it would be concerning that if there was going to be a seasonal spike of COVID, we would be approaching it.
So my point was that people, when
polled, might still consider COVID to be distracting them from climate change as far as a ranking of "very serious" problems. Although maybe it was dropping at that time as we seemed to be coming out of it. Much like I think that inflation and the two international wars right now might be distracting them from climate change as far as a ranking of "very serious" problems. Because humans aren't as complex or rational as we like to tell ourselves, and we often consider how "serious" a problem is by relative comparison.