The vaccines have proven highly effective at protecting against COVID and its highly transmissible variants, and it's unlikely that we'll see a new variant aris

The vaccines have proven highly effective at protecting against COVID and its highly transmissible variants, and it's unlikely that we'll see a new variant arise that exhibits sufficient immune escape to result in severe infections in vaccinated people. The criteria for the various levels of reopening at the beginning were due the need to protect vulnerable people who did not have the opportunity to magically protect themselves by getting vaccinated.