Honestly, the entire COVID response and vaccine initiative is in dire need of a good marketing campaign, perhaps alongside a healthy carrot and stick approach. We have the vaccine, and yet everything I hear out of officials mouths is doom and gloom, and equivocating about what it will take to be out of lockdown/protective measures. We understand nothing is certain in science or the virus, but you are experts and if you think something is 70%+ likely or not then tell us until proven otherwise.

Instead I would recommend the following.

1. Set a goal of the "best guess" of number of people needed to get herd immunity. Notice I said "best guess", we are never going to get it right, we are unlikely to actually completely achieve herd immunity. But compared to where we are now with a very small portion of the population having any immunity, and 70-85% of our citizens being vaccinated is a hell of a lot better then where we are now.

2. Plaster that count of people who have gotten immunized everywhere, time square, bottom of evening news, upper right of every newspaper. Make it aspirational for the nation to hit this number

3. Now for the hard part, when we hit it, remove protective measures. Yes its possible hospitals still have COVID patients, but I guarantee it will not be this crazy level of infection if we have 85% vaccination or similar. We will instead have isolated flare ups which can be dealt with on a regional basis. The US did this with small pox several decades ago. They would lockdown neighborhoods or even towns as flare ups happened. I've talked with seniors going through this about being in previous lockdowns when they were children, we have just forgotten this far back.

4. Now for the stick. I believe OSHA has indicated it is within an employers right to require vaccination, especially related to the pandemic. Use this aggressively. Pass protections for businesses, particularly freaking health care facilities, to consider failure to vaccinate (without certain medical exceptions) as cause for termination. It can be a gradual thing as vaccine availability comes online perhaps they are offered remote work if possible. However, when it hits general availability and you are still declining, then ultimately the business can't have you on their facility (or open themselves up to liability for unsafe work environment) and thus you are terminated. You are perfectly able to continue to decline, that is your right, but that does not mean you have continued employment at this organization.

In closing, I like all of you are freaking tired of this thing. I want to see the country looking forward to that magic day when this pandemic is over. Remember, the Flu from 1918 never went away, it just got a hell of a lot less deadly and people gained more immunity. It still throws our hospitals for a loop when we have a bad flu year. The goal is not to end COVID, it is instead immunity to the vast majority of us until the virus, naturally, continues its evolution to a less deadly form, and our population's immune system adapts as well. Here is hoping 2021-2022 has all the similarities of the roaring 20's after the 1918 flu, I'm certainly ready for a good time again!