It’s because they saw how useful it was in the US to control citizens.

If there was no Donald Trump in office, the US and then the rest of the world have done nothing huge. Not saying Trump did it, but leftist controlled areas purposefully amped up their response in opposition to trump.

It would have been 2009 all over again. Some reports of deaths, hospitalizations, people wash their hands more frequently a few months, and we forget about it.

Everything Europe has done has been follow US leftists lead.

Russia, Asia, Africa, etc will and in many respects have gone back to normal, but any place corrupt with leftist progressive ideology will have this forever.