There was a long period where it was promised the vaccines were going to deliver herd immunity and eliminate the virus (perhaps not by public health officials, they're too savvy for that, but they were happy not to push back against the idea as it was propagated in the popular science press), but this is being quickly walked back as it becomes clear the vaccinated can play host to large amounts of virus. It's yet another Covid bait-and-switch, just like "it's just the flu, no need to worry -> oh actually it's the most lethal virus ever and we need to lock everything down," "15 days to slow the spread -> stay at home until spring when cases come back down," and "the vaccines will get us back to normal -> oh we need you to wear masks again".

The crux of the issue is not that vaccinated people are living their lives as normal (or rather, as "normal" used to be in 2019), but that SARS-CoV-2 is an endemic seasonal virus for which there are no forms of sterilizing immunity, so it's going to keep showing up over and over as long as we are testing for it. If we then use those positive test numbers (euphemistically termed "Covid-19 cases" even though they are often not associated with any actual disease or symptoms) to justify lockdowns, school closures, etc, we will be doing them forever.

Australia's seven day average death toll from Covid is at 1, and the UK's death toll from its recent Delta wave was a mere fraction of what was seen in earlier waves. I used to think it wouldn't be possible to maintain the public's level of panic once either the vaccines, natural immunity, or the virus's natural course of evolution drove it to become less lethal. Now I'm really not so sure.