For the GOP, during the campaign, the economy was everything. Even staunchly “pro-life” Republicans called for the elderly to live normal lives and risk death for the sake of GDP and the Trump re-election effort.
Today, with a free, effective vaccine in place, it’s all about personal freedom, not the economy. Refusing the vaccine, of course, has the collateral effect of making Biden’s record look worse than it should. Coincidence? Possibly not.
If we were back in 2020, do you think for a minute that the GOP would be tolerant of anti-vaxxers, and so opposed to mandates? This is cynical, opportunistic libertarianism, not the real thing.