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It is needed to get the r_o low enough that herd immunity is achieved at a lower % of population threshold (there is a clever mathematical proof showing why you don't need 100% exposure for this to happen)

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I think there are a huge number of infections which were not caught by testing, due to being before the pandemic officially started (#earlycovid [0]), or because they were asymptomatic (ex: large percent of the pregnant women who showed up at the hospital to give birth in NYC in March 2020). I think I caught the 'rona in December 2019 or January 2020, headache for a day or two then I was fine...

Virulent coronaviruses usually burn themselves out without help. This one is more potent than the earlier ones, but if people are healthy they'll be fine.

[0] https://twitter.com/TaxiCabJesus/status/1328218514419662849

You're right, though I think the unappreciated difficulty will be getting people to take it. I think it might be one of those things where people say they're willing to take it because they don't want to say otherwise, but may not actually go and get it. If the risks are primarily in the old and at-risk and the young and healthy are the ones who are supposed to be vaccinated, those incentives just don't align.

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