I wonder how close we are to stopping a lot of the deaths? Vaccination and now this must help a lot
Not very, we can always stem the tide of course but there is a low water mark which is very difficult to get under. People need to die from something, as harsh as that sounds. Many people have heart and lung issues and are, in effect, waiting for the next thing to knock them out. Many of these people have been isolating and limiting their activities but we're approaching a new Christmas period of mixing, which will stress the vaccine's effect in this vulnerable group. Now we're experiencing the Delta variant, which I believe from the last time I checked was something along the lines of 15% more transmissible and 10% more deadly, and we're likely to see Covid continue to absorb some of flu's fatalities amongst this vulnerable group for the foreseeable future. There is little you can do when the underlying problem is 1) your immune system isn't very good and 2) medications tend to work by optimising either your body's response mediated by your immune system, or by helping your body compensate better to the stress - both of which are reduced in the vulnerable.
I do think the longer term problem of reinfection and efficiency of Covid 'waves' is going to be a bit of a headache for everyone, particularly with waning immunity amongst those who will be able to reintroduce Covid to the vulnerable populations. I've got a couple of older friends of the family who are almost 70, one has cancer and the other has had a series of strokes - both are having an absolute zero tolerance to seeing people, are not going out to social activities and are effectively in a static state many of us would recognise from last spring. Supermarket, home, Zoom calling everyone, lots of TV streaming. I'm sure many other people with chronic issues are in this cycle, but rejoining the world has to be done at some point and whilst the booster shots will give solid protection for 4-6 months it is yet to be seen whether we'll be seeing these boosters arrive at 6 month intervals ad infinitum or whether this is going to be an autumn-only policy to reduce the impact of the NHS during the 'respiratory disease season' and for the rest of the year people are on their own.