To put it starkly, most of the death has been confined to nursing homes and most people don't see it. Most people don't know anyone who has died of COVID. It is not that deadly of a pandemic yet.
Surging cases isn't surging death. There has been a very small uptick in deaths as the virus spreads through the South, but not nearly as big as the surge in cases. Meaning more people are living through it.
It is easy to pretend things are normal and the only thing standing in the way of the unafraid people living normally are the scared people.
The scared people like to talk about all the unknowns. Who knows how many will have lasting damage? Who knows if you can get reinfected?
The not scared people are okay with the uncertainty. Every day you get into your car you could die in a car accident, you don't get torn up about the unknowns.
I've said this from the beginning, if this disease killed more people of prime age, the response would be very different.
But it is very hard to scare the confident, unafraid people into submission the way the virus spreads and kills right now.