NEW YORK, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The pretext of public health and safety has proven to be a good fulcrum, a good lever to get people to do things that otherwise they would be very reluctant to do, U.S. news portal The Daily Signal reported on Monday, citing an expert.

Many COVID-19 restrictions and mandates have been rolled back, but the infrastructure remains in place, "ready and waiting for the next declared public health crisis," said Aaron Kheriaty, a psychiatrist who directs the Bioethics and American Democracy program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.

Kheriaty chose to speak out against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which cost him his job at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, according to the report.

"It's also been an occasion for the accumulation of power, mostly by the executive branch of government," he said.

Unless placed in check, the government will use public health orders to further its own agenda, whether about COVID-19, climate change, or abortion, he added.