The way I see it is that the covid issue has been integrated into the blue vs red tribalism that started long ago but really came to a boil during Trump's administration.

Additionally, media, both mainstream and alternative, are adding fuel to the fire because it means more clicks.

Normally in a situation where people can't agree I would suggest that you first try to find common ground and build from there. What I did was to find an occurrence where "my side" has been wrong and "theirs" has been right; then we did the opposite.

This was a great starting point for future conversations. And by conversations I mean dialectical ones rather than rhetorical.