A quote from the Politico newsletter this morning, which shows very clearly that we are back to the idea of “herd immunity by infection”:
A government official defended their position to Playbook last night by conceding that millions of people will catch COVID in the next few weeks, but arguing that the vast majority will have only mild cold or flu like symptoms thanks to being double jabbed, and that younger people who have only had one dose of the vaccine are very unlikely to be hospitalized. The hope among government scientists, the official said, is that the explosion in cases, coupled with the vaccination program, will build so much immunity in the population that cases will eventually drop back down and something much more approaching normality can be achieved.
https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/politico-london-playbook-ping-of-fire-fino-3-percent-pay-rise
This agrees with the news regarding modelling done by the UK government earlier this year, as reported by Byline Times a month ago:
The Cabinet Office incorporated ‘herd immunity by natural infection’, alongside vaccination, into all the modelling used to develop Boris Johnson’s ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown earlier this year, Government documents examined by Byline Times reveal.
https://bylinetimes.com/2021/06/24/the-ghost-of-herd-immunity-still-haunts-boris-johnsons-roadmap-out-of-lockdown/?s=03
Any increase in deaths in England due to COVID-19 as of today will be a direct result of this political decision taken early this year.