Herd immunity is easier said than done. A portion of the people who become infected require medical intervention, and many parts of the US medical system are inadequate to meet this need. It will take years to get to herd immunity levels through any kind of controlled infection alone, and many will die.

Take a look at the forecasts of hospital bed utilization if 20, 40, 60% of the population were to be infected over a 6, 12, or 18 month period: https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/covid-hospitals

Anywhere on those maps that show red indicates people dying due to hospital resource exhaustion, either from COVID-19 or unrelated health issues. To a lesser degree this is happening in yellow areas as well.

And ProPublica is only considering beds! Medical personnel, supplies and equipment are finite resources as well. Personnel cannot handle 18 months of 200% bed utilization, and they don't have the PPE they need as it is.

There is no easy fix to this situation; we are facing the kind of problem that is best met with thorough preparation, but unfortunately we don't have that.

The government can print money, and implement programs to distribute food and other necessities. They can't print tests or masks or vaccines -- once the resources are put in place, it simply takes time. Realistically, it will be a long time before even one of those three things is in a good place. Probably not this year.

A more achievable goal than herd immunity is to find a workable way to reduce the number of viral carriers and limit transmission while we wait for the tests, masks and vaccines that we need to get society back on track. That requires leadership and coordination, but it especially requires us to accept the seriousness of the situation and behave responsibly.