The issue is this disease is killing younger people than those who typically die of the flu. There number of general hospitalizations is significantly higher, with more longer lasting after infection effects.
Nearly all my friends who have had Covid can't taste or smell. That alone should scare you. I have not had it, because I am vaccinated and wear a mask while I do my normal social activities here in South Africa.
The problem is that most of the things that governments around the world have been doing to try to combat corona are completely useless, and carry a huge cost for society. We're killing people with lockdowns and school closures and by limiting medical procedures. Suicides among children and teenagers are up. Deaths of despair are up. Cancer screenings are down. The future healthcare debt is just piling up. If our strategy is killing more people than we're saving, we should stop and re-think the strategy!
The hubris is enormous. Countries think they can eradicate sars-cov-2, and every single attempt has been an abysmal failure. Omicron has been detected in Australia. How? They have incredibly strict border controls, quarantine camps, vaccine requirements and testing requirements for travelers, and yet the virus slipped through.
OP isn't saying we should throw our hands in the air and just ignore the virus, but we also shouldn't double down on useless measures that do more harm than good, and we shouldn't succumb to wishful thinking that the virus can be magically erased if only everyone did X.
Those that arrive through other locations (eg Melbourne, Sydney) etc were quarantined through hotel quarantine, which had/has leaks.
Our infection rate from COVID is substantially lower than other countries of similar size and economy, our hospitalization and death rates are substantially lower as well.
We have achieved 80-90+% vaccination rates for the majority of the population (ie 12+) and have started rolling out the 3rd shot/booster as well as planning for vaccination of 5+ starting early next year, hopefully getting 5+ kids vaccinated early in the school term.
The people protesting and complaining are a very small but noisy minority, and their arguments are becoming less and less relevant. In the two largest states, Victoria and NSW, we are "living with" COVID, with minimal restrictions (masks in internal retail spaces, hospitals and other vulnerable population locations, requirement for double vaccination in most businesses etc).
We're not trying (anymore) to "eradicate" covid, we're adapting to it, but in a way that maximizes safety and minimizes risk.
Anecdotally, me and my family have not been sick with the cold or flu ounce since all the Covid measures started. Normally we all get sick with the cold or flu at least ounce a year if not more, but now for over 2 years not sick ounce.
So it does seem like the measures do work to contain the spread of airborne disease to some extent. Will it be enough to eradicate Covid, probably not, that I can concess.
Definitely not a few.
We were on the downslide of the third big bump of COVID deaths per worldometers, but let's face it, there's going to be a big fourth even without Omicron from the infections from far less restrained Xmas/Thanksgiving get togethers.
I hope I'm wrong...
The US is one of the worst examples of COVID response, both during Trump's era and the post-Trump/QAnon/Fox/OAN/etc spread of bullshit propaganda.
It's not Xmas/Thanksgiving that's the issue, it's the lack of following logical safety and vaccination measures, somehow tied to "freedom" without considering the "general welfare".