> The question is at what point hospitalization rates are low enough (from vaccinations and prior infections) that we can stop staying at home. The reality is

> The question is at what point hospitalization rates are low enough (from vaccinations and prior infections) that we can stop staying at home. The reality is that most of the response policy has been driven by protecting infrastructure rather than directly trying to protect people. The goal of lockdowns as well as other preventive measures is to smooth the curve and keep hospitals, food production, child care, mass transit and goods transportation, etc from collapsing. Once the estimate is that hospitals have a healthy margin of ICU space available with less restrictions, restrictions have often been immediately dropped. Personally instigated restrictions, such as someone choosing to stay at home when here is no mandate, is much more nuanced.