TomD
"If we're to have the idea that somehow everyone will get vaccinated and the virus will disappear, I think that's wishful thinking."

It certainly isn't necessary. Let's say heard immunity is 70%. That is 70% of the people playing the game. I just came from an area in NA that has strong borders and where there has never been community transmission. There are people who travel outside the region for work (they have to quarantine when they reenter, but basically nobody has the virus and it has never exited controls. This is a real area, with borders and law enforcement. I was there for 4 months, and it was hysterical to see people LARPING COVID compliance, lining up 6 feet apart outside stores, etc... I am sure 100% of the people will get the vaccine and will keep wearing masks. Just how it is. But from a science perspective with zero community transmission nobody needs the vaccine who does not exit the region.

But in Ontario where I normally live we have a very active scene with massive amounts of community transmission. But the vast majority of the geographic area is basically COVID free. When that breaks down and COVID makes a break for it, it is always travel that caused it. So does everyone need to get vaccinated when there is no community transmission in 99% of the land mass?

What about where the 3000 cases a day are happening, well there you have people who are getting infected a lot. They need the vaccine. But there are people like me who are not getting it and probably never would, even though we live in the same zone. The spread-people are getting immunity in several other ways, and the people like me are immune by virtue of effective physical barriers. When herd immunity works, it is not because everyone is immune it is because the spread drops below R1 and the thing wipes itself out. That happens when the people participating in the transmission reach an R of less than 1. If 70% immunity is the tipping point (or 80, or 90), that only needs to be that level in the locus of transmission. Of course if so far the experts we all trust have managed things so well that you have a uniform level of community spread throughout the whole geography of your country then you need to get 70% (or whatever) of everyone vaccinated who is at high risk of infection, still nothing like that percentage applied to the whole population.