When Dr. Fauci says "I am the Science"
They obey him, because like Xenophon says they think Fauci is smarter and the expert.
Like a Physician who knows the cure.

It's really the same with Divine Right and Monarchy -- it was to teach you people that the King is your superior and has a preeminence.
It's just that these days, it isn't enough to give a ruler a prophet like majesty over you.
Now that Christianity is extremely divisive, it's no real use to make the claim of divine right because it would be contested by so many parties and Christianity doesn't have much genuine faith from people like it used to.

Now dictators settle for political ideologies and totalitarianism because it is more effective.