There are scientists who state we're at the point where "we need to target the vulnerable" (rather than giving boosters to all over-12s) and that "there [is] no point in trying to stop all infections, and that at some point, society has to open up".
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, chairman of the [UK's] Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is one of them.
The point when society has to open up is when there is enough community immunity that removing mitigations doesn't cause healthcare shortages due to staff infections or resource constraints. That's after Paxlovid is readily available or vaccine mandates have driven up vaccination rates, not today.
> The point when society has to open up is when there is enough community immunity that removing mitigations doesn't cause healthcare shortages due to staff infections or resource constraints [..]
Currently many staff shortages are being made much worse by public health policy, not Covid19 itself, in that otherwise healthy staff being forced to stay away from work to comply with quarantine requirements.
These requirements are now being relaxed[0], which is a good thing, but at some point the requirements need to go back to how the world worked before Covid which is approximately "if you're sick, please stay at home; if you're healthy, please come to work".
Most of the country. There are only a few places where the vaccination rate is already high enough that a mandate couldn't increase it at least 10%.
The scare quotes around "fully" are unnecessary. Two doses is enough to drive down hospitalization risk to flu levels. Boosters aren't necessary from a public health perspective because boosting the already vaccinated has a miniscule effect on total hospitalizations. (Sure, if you want them to reduce your own risk, that's fine because they have been approved. If you want them to reduce disruptions in your workplace, that is also fine. Just don't expect to materially impact health system availability.) Vaccinating the unvaccinated has a much larger effect. Alternatively, Omicron seems like it will reach them before mandates take effect or Paxlovid supply is ready, with worse outcomes on the health system.
It appears that some regions may actually be at risk of driving ratios downwards as they shorten the validity of vaccination certificates for those already "fully vaccinated" but who haven't had additional shots since then.