Animal spirits & the human spirit

I am all for exuberant animal spirits, but why do we have to drop mask mandates when reopening the economy at a time daily new cases are still as high as the last summer wave peak and the country’s vaccination rate is far below what is required to achieve herd immunity? We also need the human spirit right now, and always. But if the human spirit has become identical to political ideology, then it’s a different story – that’d be woe to humanity.