Does covid have to infect every human being on the planet?

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At the moment there have now been globally nearly 500 million cases worldwide out the 7 and a half billion people on the planet and out of 7 and a half billion there have been more 5 billion people vaccinated (with one dose). We know that the latest variant of covid is much more transmissable than other variants we've had but I seem to think that the virus is not as fast at infecting everyone of the planet. I keep hearing from people that everyone will catch it at some point the thing is I've heard that not all viruses need to infect entire populations in order to go away and the Spanish Flu infected about 500 million people out of a billion or more people at that time and killed 50 or 70 million people in two years before it faded away.

Whatever the predictions and expectations are, all we can really know is that what will eventually happen is what will eventually happen.

Twice.

So far, no one I know has been infected (China).
But I would wonder if we've already paid a higher price for this than the infection.

Nearly all of my relatives have had covid. I'm waiting for my turn, as it's rife in the UK right now and the last I heard up to 4 million people in the UK have covid as we speak. So I'm bound to cross paths with someone with covid sooner or later and then catch it. Now that less people are taking tests, there are probably loads of people out there walking around not even aware that they have covid.

It seems that 2 years ago it was either mild to no symptoms or extreme illness to death. Now it's less extremes but more symptoms, if that makes sense.

Under this present variant, way fewer people are being hospitalized, intubated, or dying than under previous outbreaks.

NYC has triple the positives as like 6 weeks ago. Hospitalizations and intubations have remained about the same. There are fewer deaths.

There tends to be less lung involvement and more upper respiratory involvement than previously.

One way to think about:
Suppose there was no vaccine.
Everyone who gets the virus and doesn't die is very unlikely to get it again.
Everyone who gets the virus and does dies is even more likely to not get it again.
Eventually the virus will run out of people to infect.
If you managed to hide out until then - herd immunity may keep you safe.
Otherwise everyone has to get it.

But there is a vaccine - so maybe not EVERYONE.

One way to think about:
Suppose there was no vaccine.
Everyone who gets the virus and doesn't die is very unlikely to get it again.
Everyone who gets the virus and does dies is even more likely to not get it again.
Eventually the virus will run out of people to infect.
If you managed to hide out until then - herd immunity may keep you safe.
Otherwise everyone has to get it.

But there is a vaccine - so maybe not EVERYONE.

COVID might become something similar to the flu.....but, unfortunately, you could get it any time of the year, unlike the flu.