"proxy for how serious the wearer takes Covid as a threat." I would suggest that this now law in some countries and that would be the reason for wearing facemasks.
Yes. There is no reason for people to keep being tested all the time for Covid if/when that is no longer a risk.
Once/if the risk has passed this will all stop because there is neither a justification nor value for governments to continue.
It's a little paranoid to claim that governments are continuously trying to create totalitarian states. Or that, in any case, they can do what they want, they can't. We already see that with all the debates on these passes and safety measures put in place. They are a hard sell to the public and everyone's watching. There is already huge pressure not to have them for a day longer than absolutely necessary and politically governments will have to stop as soon as possible.
The true covid death rate has been tricky to record in the UK, a positive test result within 28 days prior to death is recorded as a covid death, even if the death was caused by something else. We obviously don't know enough about COVID to know if it is contributing all the COVID registered deaths.
The UK government publishes other ways to measure COVID deaths. the "positive test result with 28 days of death" results in the lowest count:
Deaths in England and Wales in 2020
80,830 Covid-19 as underlying cause of death or contributing factor
77,161 Increase in deaths (from all causes) from 2019 to 2020
73,444 Covid-19 as underlying cause of death on death certificate
70,013 Any death within 28 days of a positive Covid test
