Nope. When numbers go down, we relax. When hospitals fill up, we lock down. It doesn't matter how contagious COVID is. It will remain at endemic levels forever, on the path we're on.
We've turned a billion dollar problem into a multi-trillion dollar one in February 2020. Now, we're turning it into a tens-of-trillions-of-dollars problem.
100% N95-equivalent masks. 100% vaccination. 6 foot distancing whenever possible. Outdoors whenever possible. That would still get COVID today, but it might not in a year. Delta and Gamma are concerning, and we'll only see more mutations, and ones better able to jump our mitigation measures.
But australia has beat many flare ups by locking down, right back to 0. The fact it keeps coming back from countries that dont lock down is hardly proof lockdowns never work.
The thing about r values is it doesnt need everybody to be washing their hands, just enough to break the chain. If the person who would have infected you never caught it, then you wont get it, and so on.
>You're literally doing what I said. You're using the one metric to justify never ending lockdowns
Total deaths? Yeah im using that metric. A lot of people have died, australias response shows they died unnecessarily.
I do see some 'cleanliness theatre', but the thing about r values is that little things help a lot. Washing hands regularly, wearing a mask. I havnt a cold in 18 months, which is pretty unheard of for me, because everyone is taking a bit more care. If only covid were 'only' as contagious as the cold, we probably would have beaten it already.