Americans are tired of Covid — and the official response to omicron has only created more frustration

American corporations, government officials and other institutions are once again weighing the risks of Covid-19 as they plot a path forward during the holiday season.

But this time around, instead of facing a scared public, they’re dealing with a largely vaccinated population increasingly exhausted by the virus and its variants.

The result is a jumbled, contradictory response to the heavily mutated omicron variant.

Professional sports leagues are postponing games, the World Economic Forum is pushing back its annual Davos conference and colleges are restricting indoor gatherings. Meanwhile, younger audiences helped “Spider-Man: No Way Home” score the second-biggest weekend opening in box office history, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will take place on schedule on Jan. 5, and government leaders in New York City are assuring constituents that schools won’t close even as classrooms temporarily shut down.

A lack of leadership, both federally and locally, has led to small factions operating in their own self-interest rather than following a unified policy, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. That’s happened because the public has seen Covid responses as both hyperpolitical and unreliable, Gordon said.