So much of the idiocy -- yep, on "both sides" -- is because we (and I mean the whole planet, not just the US) don't have a clearly articulated and reasonable goal for where we should end up.
What makes COVID bad is not that it makes you congested and feel like shit. Colds to that. The flu does that. And we live normal lives with those things circulating. What makes COVID bad is that it causes DEBILITATING illness (with long-term physical harm) and death at a much higher rate than other respiratory illnesses.
So, I have always thought that our goal should be to knock COVID back to where it is just another endemic respiratory illness that sucks, but doesn't kill people. And what do you know....the vaccines out there right now accomplish that goal. Yes, they make it very unlikely that you get sick at all, but most importantly, they functionally 100% prevent serious illness and death. If we can get shots in arms, we have met the goal.
The goal can't be, nor should it be, to "eliminate" COVID from the earth. Maybe someday, 10 years from now, we could execute a plan to get us there. But in the near term, that can't be accomplished, so it's a foolish goal. The goal shouldn't even be "make COVID less prevalent than the flu."
The goal should be "control the thing that makes COVID bad -- serious illness and death." We can do that now. We should do it with all possible speed. And when we get it knocked back far enough, we should return to a fully functional life and economy, worldwide.