Indeed, though if they can convince the general public that the measures provide some safety, the pressure on the government comes to open up from the public (rather than directly from the special interest).

I was in Toronto during the SARS outbreak in 2003, and we had the temperature cameras at the airport. Not sure how many (if any) people got taken aside and quarantined because of them, but they made them very visible - not unlike many safety and security measures we have seen in the past two decades - as much for the theatre of it as the actual effectiveness.