Does the current response to COVID-19 have any actual endgame? It seems like people are just sort of blindly assuming that we'll have to put up with social distancing, mask wearing etc for a while and then eventually everything will go back to normal. But taking those measures just seems to be containing the virus at a level where it can easily flare up again but we also never reach any kind of herd immunity.

Vaccines are looking less and less promising with a lot of side effects, unknown effectiveness, and a terrible social climate to get people to take a vaccine on a mass scale. So what are we actually waiting for? Just hoping that it will eventually mutate into a weaker form and go away by itself or something?

I don't get it, it seems like what we're doing now could just go on forever.