[user104658]

I'd also point out that we also didn't lockdown the country every winter before annual flu vaccination became widespread (annual shots are actually a very new thing in the UK) and death rates did used to be higher. A long-term, spread out death rate from flu is an accepted "norm" and in the decades to come, the same will be true of Covid.

We just need to get past the initial "hump" of zero population immunity without healthcare and the economy imploding.