I think it's slightly more than "giving people an excuse" - it was all over the news for days with their excuses.

The government quite literally told people to stay home except in specific limited circumstances, then when DC broke that guidance they turned around and said "...well yes, of course any decent parent would use their best judgement" or some bollocks.

After weeks of people debating if it was even safe to go outside for exercise, or "can I go see my dying granny if she hasnt got COVID?" or whatever... we were suddenly told "well anyone who needs to break the rules should and can" and that was that, people stopped taking it seriously.

Also I feel many people who felt the government overreacted and that lockdowns were entirely unnecessary due to "low body counts" or whatever were validated by these types of announcements and it fuelled a lot of online debates about whether or not we should even be in a lockdown.