The point about # of cases (vs. maybe # of hospitalizations or deaths) is a good one and one which I have a lot of mixed thoughts/feelings about personally. Is it only (really) important to drive cases down in an environment of mediocre vaxx rates? I mean, of course, it would be nice for there to be no cases ever, but what are we really trying to do here?
I don't even know the answer to that question for myself. Part of me keeps telling myself I need to get used to the idea that someday (maybe next week, maybe not for a year or two) I'm going to get COVID. Whatever the outcome is, it's just a very likely thing to *contract it* at some point. Then another part of me wonders how much I should resign myself to that idea. How far should I personally go to not get COVID? Obviously it is a personal calculation that will change over time (regardless of the situation in the world or my community, I'm increasingly likely as time goes on, to go to more indoor or outdoor, crowded events where there are more unvaccinated people) but I don't even know how to decide how much to sacrifice in terms of QOL to decrease the likelihood by a bit more that I won't get it.
It seems hard to make these judgments in advance, to try to establish some sort of long-term paradigm for myself. But it also seems like a bad idea to wait until situations present themselves to me, as I'll then be swinging back and forth between approaches nonsensically depending on the day, time of day, how well I slept the night before, etc. when I have to make the given decision.
I'm really interested in how vaccinated folks are approaching this mentally. For now, for me, it's easy not to worry. Where I live there are mask mandates indoors still, many places requiring proof of vaccines, including an indoor dance performance I'm going to soon. I don't feel like I personally need to make any judgment calls about what I'm comfortable with. But thinking about traveling more and when regulations are relaxed, I'm really not sure how I'll approach some of these decisions.