There's nothing circular about that. If Rt is above 1, mitigation will need to happen somehow - whether through natural immunity, death, vaccination, masks, dis

There's nothing circular about that. If Rt is above 1, mitigation will need to happen somehow - whether through natural immunity, death, vaccination, masks, distancing, whatever - until Rt goes below 1. If Rt is below 1, mitigation measures can be relaxed up to the point where Rt goes above 1 again. I personally look at four metrics - ICU capacity above/below 85%, test positive ratio above/below 5%, Rt above/below 1, and Case prevalence above/below 10/100k. If all four are below, then I'm hosting parties with my vaccinated friends. Otherwise, I'm trying not to contribute to spread.