At what point do you throw in the towel if a viable vaccine doesn’t come along?

New Zealander here: Why would we need to give up? We can come and go from New Zealand (with an isolation period) and life is normal once you are inside. Non-residents can’t come without some big hurdles though.

"229,566 people were directly employed in tourism (8.4 percent of the total number of people employed in New Zealand)"

That's a lot of people who need rejobbed

You suggest this mode for forever?

If that’s needed. Keep in mind that until relatively recently it took a lot longer to get to New Zealand as it was common to come here by ship. My parents and grandparents got here that way and it worked ok.

What is the “mode” you are talking about?

Seems like life is back to normal and the lockdown is over in NZ

Exactly the mode described in the post I was answering to. I could cite the whole comment, but I don't see a point.

This seems like a long bet. What if we never find a proper vaccine?

Exactly! What happens then?

We carry on as normal, like we are. We have to quarantine for 2 weeks when coming into the country, that is the price. Are you under the impression that something more onerous is happening?

I guess the question is... for how long?

For two weeks!

This is normal for your country which is self-sustainable, other countries cannot follow the same strategy for multiple reasons. I wish we were NZ, but we aren't. We rely on tourism, our whole economy has been build around that, closed borders and 14 days isolation will bury everything. Anyone can suggest a lockdown, but some countries cannot work that way and have to find a compromise, not bet on a vaccine somewhere in the near future (when?).

Maybe you could cater to NZ tourists or if covid safety can’t be guaranteed then go for herd immunity

Either way as a country that depends on tourism you can’t be infecting tourists

The biggest industry in New Zealand was tourism. We rely heavily on open borders until this year.

It seems very unlikely that there can be vaccine that is effective long term. Just as there is no long term Flu vaccine.

We have many vaccines that aren't long-term effective, and we have strategies for those.