I wish I were more positive about people than you, but I'm more cynical.
They're distracted by the shiny baubles, despite the fact that millions of people have died/are dying, even themselves.
But you are right about people begging for forgiveness, amnesty/"trying to play it off", using it for grabbing power, et cetera.
To quote Venom:
I don't think viewing Ukraine or Israel's struggles as 'shiny baubles' meant to 'distract' from the Wu Flu and it's vax's is at all accurate or something that is reasonable to think is happening.
Putin started fucking around with Ukraine in 2014, 6 years before the Wu Flu, and Hamas and friends have been trying to kill Jews for being Jews/being in Israel since at least 1948.
I think that if someone thinks those conflicts are 'distractions', they have lost perspective on the pre-Wu Flu world and what people were doing before that in regards to both conflicts.
There is reason to be skeptical of stuff the government says about the Wu Flu and it's vax's, of that there is no doubt.
However, that does not translate to control over the actions of Putin/Russia or Hamas/Islamic Jihad/Iran.