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Lots of commentary across yesterday's news outlets on how attainable herd immunity will really be - from the NY Times:

"But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable — at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever."

"Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers."

"Early on, the target herd immunity threshold was estimated to be about 60 to 70 percent of the population."

"But as vaccines were developed and distribution ramped up through the winter and into the spring, estimates of the threshold began to rise. That is because the initial calculations were based on the contagiousness of the original version of the virus. The predominant variant now circulating in the United States, called B.1.1.7 and first identified in Britain, is about 60 percent more transmissible."

"As a result, experts now calculate the herd immunity threshold to be at least 80 percent. If even more contagious variants develop, or if scientists find that immunized people can still transmit the virus, the calculation will have to be revised upward again."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/health/covid-herd-immunity-vaccine.html

what this does not take into account is just how many folks have had this virus but didnt know it or was so mild it wasnt reported

for this reason I think herd immunity might be making its self known right now and to say it requires 80% just is not correct

IMHO

I'm fine with this. Moderna and Pfizer are trying to combine the Covid shot with a flu shot.

Bring it on.

I've seen estimates of herd "immunity" at being around 70%, but our kids are not yet vaccinated.  They also are experiencing more infections how than before perhaps because of that, in part.

If an infectious person passes it on to say three people on average, and two are vaccinated or otherwise resistant, they might now pass it on to only one person, which would be steady state, R naught at unity.  You reach the point where infected people don't pass it on to anyone, and then it largely subsides, variants aside.

This one was bad because so many were asymptomatic for fairly long periods of time.  I think the flu gets you sick about the time it becomes infectious.

Europe has a higher level of vaccination resistance than does the US, across the board, but especially in Poland.

They seem not to trust their governments as much.

For all "we" criticize about Americans and the US, which is fine with me, often folks don't realize Europe is worse in some respects, perhaps many respects.

I had friends and coworkers in Europe, same level as me or one notch higher, a fair number.  Their general standard of living was what mine could be in the US on about half my salary.  They seemed really pinched, and they often remarked how much better we had it here in the States financially.