Treatments getting better, but things are still the same?

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I have been thinking that hospitals could find a way to improve the ability to prevent people from dying of COVID. I looked it up and sure enough, progress has been made. There is that, there are antiviral treatments being made, and of course there’s the vaccines that is obviously the most politicized out of the 3. The amount of things being made are overwhelming!

And yet, it still seems as if social distancing and mask requirements might still be happening for, well, longer than sometime in 2021. No one seems to have a clear answer for when this will just end. It doesn’t make sense to me.

There are several challenges here:

- The treatments used and being developed mostly alleviate symptoms of COVID-19, but they do not prevent infection. As such, they cannot be considered substitutes to masks, social distancing, restrictions etc.

- The treatments may not be effective. For instance, a recent study has found that remdesivir - the most promising drug so far - has has no effect on mortality.

- Many of the treatments are extremely expensive, and may not become generally available to the public. This might be a specific issue in the US with a significant part of the population is without health insurance.

- The COVID-19 vaccines being developed will likely be less than 100 percent efficient (some maybe below 50 percent). So while they may slow the spread of the virus, they may not provide outright herd immunity on their own.

- It will take time - likely additional months - to safely develop and distribute vaccines in sufficient numbers to the general public. At risk-populations will also likely get the vaccine first while the general public will have to wait longer.

When one combines these uncertainties, then it becoming possible that COVID-19 restrictions - even with treatments and vaccines available - might remain in force for quite some time.