1/ A thought. It's important to unpack, "there's a crisis on, support the government."

Easy to accept as common sense.
Easy to dismiss as creepy knee-bending.

I think it's all a little more complicated.

2/ This is a crisis where public active acquiescence to government directives will be critical and badly tested.

No matter how much enforcement power police get, you can't keep millions of people inside for months if they fundamentally reject the premise behind the rules.

3/ This is also a crisis that (as we saw in supermarket loo roll aisles) can quickly lead to panic if people don't think they're going to be safe and able to provide the basics for their families.

To some extent confidence in government is part of that.

4/ The flipside to these arguments is that for all the war metaphors being thrown around, Covid19 isn't a foreign country or ideology that might recruit spies or depress our fighting spirit if we're less than 100% supportive of our leaders.

5/ Robust questioning and debate is exactly how we iterate and improve policy.

As much as some draw comfort from being told the government is unimpeachable, others draw solace from seeing it robustly scrutinised. Pushed to explain and course correct.

6/ Are some critics operating in bad faith, more interested in point scoring than scrutiny? Absolutely.

But that's the price of allowing and encouraging critique. The dumbest conspiracy theorist in your mentions can't be an argument for @MarinaHyde to get in line.

7/ Is fielding criticism a distraction for the government?

Maybe, but so what?

There's no election for a while in most countries, so answering questions and fielding criticism should be about making sure the public follows direction and not about electoral politics.

8/ If the government approach in your country is the right one then it will be vindicated well ahead of the next election and no amount of griping from critics in March will make a difference to their heroic triumph.

If it's wrong, then the next election will be too late.

9/ None of that means spreading conspiracy theories or accusing government of deliberately killing grandma is helpful.

However, neither is blind unquestioning support for the government because "it's a crisis."

/end