You don't need to be that afraid.
I can assure you with 100% certainty that no one on the left or leaning left want an authoritarian government.
These are unique times. They call for unique measures. Mandates are only an issue because every measure that has ever been suggested to combat this pandemic has been met with uninformed opposition. First, it was quarantining. That worked for 3 weeks. 3 weeks later, when it was time to end quarantine, left said "No, keep quarantine." And we didn't. And the virus spread.
Masks and social distancing were recommended. No one liked that, but it was something we had to do to minimize it. Population morale was already low with political strife. Then, a man was slowly killed on video. Whether it was murder or not, he was killed. Everyone, on both sides, had had enough. Because of this, riots took place, protests took place. One side used masks, the other didn't. The virus continued to spread.
The vaccine was advocated by Trump and Operation Warp Drive. He was cheered on by his constituents when he mentioned the possibility of getting the vaccine done by election day. Democrats were concerned about the safety of the vaccine if it was rushed that early when experts on vaccine synthetization said we wouldn't see a vaccine until early January. Fortunately, it was done a month early.
Because of this, and Biden's drive to push vaccines out as quickly as possible, the view of the vaccine shifted negatively among the right. The left was pleased that the CDC and all involved with the vaccine were able to proceed at their own pace. However. Biden did enact Emergency Use Authorization. If you look at how Emergency use and normal use of drug testing works, you'll find that before this was a serious talking point for the right, the number of tests needed for Normal Use had already been reached (About in February March) is when this was made into an issue, at least as viral messaging goes on the internet.
Today, many people assert that the virus is rushed, in spite of the fact that 10,000,000,000 vaccines have been administered worldwide and there have been only a handful of deaths due to complications of the vaccine.
Yet, to incur political favor, vaccine misinformation is being pedaled since COVID denial is outdated, as well as masking and social distancing.
So now, we have (according to the right) a vaccine that doesn't work, for a virus that has no symptoms.
... Right.