I think the political motivations are more widespread than is acknowledged. Perhaps not to the fringe level, but it seems like "let no good crisis go to waste" mentality is not uncommon, especially here in the United States.
The polls I've read show large differences in how left and right wing people view the virus and what should be done about it. My feelings are this goes back to the Thomas Sowell "conflict of visions" theory...
https://unherd.com/thepost/thomas-sowells-conflict-of-visions-epidemiology-edition/I remember reading several months ago the online comments in The New York Times, how resentful the readership was that the more "red" states weren't taking this disease seriously and that the economy would get so bad Trump would lose. Neil Ferguson the previously influential British epidemiologist seemed to have left wing ideologies (the married girlfriend he went to see during lockdown that eventually cost him his influential position certainly did, she is known to be a left wing activist).
I think the mandated lockdown response feeds into left wing ideology. The idea that we are all equal, the response must be uniform, because we are all equal and not different. As more is acknowledged about the virus nothing can be further from the truth, reasonably healthy children have almost no risk from CoVID-19, while frail people in long-term care facilities have a fatality rate that could be close to 50%. But, that acknowledgement comes with a lot of cognitive dissonance for people that think we are all equal and that the ends and result must also be equal.
As humans we are able to fix problems and make things better and the government has the means to do it through mandated and uniform policy. That's a great idea, but viruses don't work in the framework of an egalitarian mindset.
Case in point:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/opinion/coronavirus-race-obesity.htmlWhile the author makes a valid point about racial health discrepancies, she does her best to discard pre-conditions and obesity as risk factors to CoVID, even though after only a few short months the correlation is well established.
70% of the COVID deaths in the Northeast have been men, but acknowledging that fact and doing something about it doesn't fit the agenda...out goes science and in comes left wing politics to save the day. You see, women are the true victims here:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/24/world/women-rights-coronavirus-intl/index.htmlThe current comments on The New York Times almost always "blame Trump" as their mantra for any article written about anything, yet the mandatory COVID seeding of nursing homes under the Governors of NY, NJ and PA is ignored. Trial lawyers will have their day with the taxpayers of the Northeast, that I guarantee.
I think politics play a lot into the initial COVID forecasts and COVID response, and a lot of the response was based on fringe ideological ideas masked in pseudo-science and agenda. We know politics and religion are the hiding places for scoundrels, unfortunately science isn't far behind. Science has become a great hiding place for those with unscientific agendas.
The New York Times and CNN aren't what I would consider fringe, but how they look at the world isn't much different than a young socialist wanting to turn COVID into the next Karl Marx success story.