The vaccine was "on the radar" from the get go - they didn't have one yet, but there was broad awareness that one would have to be made to solve the problem. The initial lockdowns and the (belated) masking mandates were explicitly described as stopgap measures to hold the line.
"Linking participation to social life and freedoms" has been around for decades in form of school vaccine mandates. Mandatory masking had a clear precedent in 1918. If you're surprised by any of this, I don't even know what to say.