We have beaten this topic to death here already, but the entire point of lockdowns was to prevent the overrun of the healthcare system. Outside of NY and possibly one or two other cities that reacted late, that goal was achieved. Then, largely due to hysteria, the goalposts were moved and planted in the endzone painted "prevent any more viral spread", which is impossible. We simply cannot sustain any more prolonged lockdowns or we won't have a functioning economy/country/society anymore.

When this all started, everyone agreed that the goal was to "flatten the curve", meaning that in the end, a certain number of people are going to contract the virus, and the variable is the timeframe within which that occurs. And that is precisely what is happening now. Everyone knew that as soon as people came out of hiding, cases would increase, just as with increased testing comes increased confirmed cases. But there is no other option - keeping people locked up forever is not possible. If that was truly the goal, then the media should never have looked the other way when tens of thousands of people spilled out into the streets across the country to protest, loot, and riot. Not condemning that behavior as very risky regarding potential large viral outbreaks sent the messages that 1) the virus is going away and/or 2) the virus must not be that dangerous.

What we are seeing now is the natural, inevitable progression of a global pandemic. The good news is that as we are seeing cases increase, we are not seeing a proprotionate increase in hospitalizations and deaths yet, due to many factors, such as:
-Younger, less vulnerable folks are now contracting the virus
-Policies that sent COVID-19 patients into nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been identified as terribly dangerous
-Treatment therapies are improving rapidly as doctors gain access to more and more data about what has and has not worked well so far
-Increased testing is helping to prevent the unknown spread of the virus

All of this points to the situation becoming more manageable as we hope and pray for an effective vaccine. I still don't personally expect a widely effective vaccine to work out anytime soon, so faced with the alternative, I interpret all of this as good news because it means that we may be progressing towards some form of herd immunity that isn't accompanied by a horrific death toll. The number of deaths that has already occurred is absolutely tragic, but based on what we know about China's handling of the initial outbreak and the WHO's either incompetence or complicity in covering up the true severity of this virus, I really don't think the rest of the world had a chance to prevent the initial surge of cases...particularly here in the United States, where we recognize that the trade-off for liberty often comes with some risk.