Tobacco use (in high-income regions where indoor smoking is fairly rare, which is the relevant policy frontier) harms mostly the user. Covid harms anyone who wants to be indoors with people.
Tobacco prohibition has a long history of puritan and race/class-ist attacks on users. This makes it much easier to distrust the motives for removal.
Policy imposed by high-income regions on low-income regions has a similar history and reasons for suspicion.
Also, I think the premise is misleading. Behaviors are both top-down and bottom-up. Governments influence behaviors in many ways, but they’re also influenced by the population. It’s worth examining why governments and elite are focusing on COVID more than tobacco, but it’s even more worth examining why the populace in different areas is focusing more or less on either (or neither, in some cases).
Some very major differences:
Tobacco use (in high-income regions where indoor smoking is fairly rare, which is the relevant policy frontier) harms mostly the user. Covid harms anyone who wants to be indoors with people.
Tobacco prohibition has a long history of puritan and race/class-ist attacks on users. This makes it much easier to distrust the motives for removal.
Policy imposed by high-income regions on low-income regions has a similar history and reasons for suspicion.
Also, I think the premise is misleading. Behaviors are both top-down and bottom-up. Governments influence behaviors in many ways, but they’re also influenced by the population. It’s worth examining why governments and elite are focusing on COVID more than tobacco, but it’s even more worth examining why the populace in different areas is focusing more or less on either (or neither, in some cases).