you don’t need a perfect cure like in the movies. Even a combination of existing treatments that reduces death rate by 90% and reduces hospitalization time by 50-75% would be a wonderful thing.
Even a vaccine that’s 50% effective would put a big dent in COVID transmission and allow fairly mild measures (basic hygiene, masks) to do the rest. The herd immunity threshold isn’t fixed — it’s dependent on culture and behaviour.
Herd immunity is the unspoken goal (Newsom has discussed it), but the interim goal is not to have a high death rate or to overwhelm hospitals. If hospitals are at risk of overload like in Riverside and Imperial Counties, then temporary measures need to be taken to reduce transmission.
Oh, and wear your damn masks, people. If we can reduce transmission via fairly non-intrusive technology like masks, it reduces the need for other, more unpleasant, social distancing measures.
