i am generally not interested in protests of any type (there was a time, though), as they rarely if ever serve my purposes. my primary purpose is to live without the imposition on my life of authoritarian institutions (and individuals), and appealing to those institutions to dismantle themselves - or just leave me the fuck alone - is far less than useless.
no anarchist i have affinity with would be supportive of ANY government mandates. how they feel about protesting those mandates is probably across the board, though very few would do so with any expectation of any government response other than repression.
however, in the context of modern human mass society, where a relatively dangerous virus is running rampant all over the globe, it is hard to imagine a government that would not mandate certain measures to try to limit its spread. authoritarians act in authoritarian ways, as expected. and despite the fact that i wish no government ever existed, it is very easy to understand why they would do so in this context.
enough people refuse to take the simple mitigation measures, that transmission is largely uncontrollable (if entirely predictable, based on history and behavior), and so governments feel compelled to do something to reduce transmission. duh. i find it mind-boggling how so many people refuse to take any precautions, and then those same people bitch about lockdowns and "freedom". is it really that difficult to connect the dots?
if you (any government) mandate that people cannot go to work due to your lockdowns, and you do not provide them with what they (have largely been indoctrinated into thinking they) need, do not expect them to comply with your mandates. same goes for small businesses. (fuck big business extra hard, they have plenty of government support as it is.)
ignorance and binary thinking flourish, all around. i don't claim to be immune. but at least i understand why certain behavior is risky, and the relationship between that risky behavior and the effects on people i care about, and the folks working in health care and other "essential" (???) areas like grocery stores, pharmacies, etc., who are likely constantly exposed.
[edited the last sentence above for clarity]
let me not ignore the very real emotional/psychological impacts of lockdowns on individuals and their social lives. they are real, and they are potentially dangerous. i know quite a few people (including family members) who are suffering from serious "covid fatigue", and that can cause them to lower their defenses with a self-delusional sense of security. that is particularly acute with folks who are very social and that have never before been deprived of their social lives. i am glad i am generally anti-social. also glad i am much closer to the end of my life than the beginning.