"but if you hear about and read enough reports about breakthrough infections, it's pretty clear that it's not rare for "mild" cases to be pretty rough"

That's me to a tee. Full vax by mid May, the worse fever of my life in Sept. Lasted five days and it felt like my brain was swelled.

The variants are way ahead of the vaccines. Perhaps the vaccines reduce symptoms -- I had no respiratory symptoms, for which I'm very grateful -- but not getting this is pretty much not an option; you are going to get it.

Eliminating or eradicating this is not feasible near term. I'm just astonished the official mainstream narrative is still indulging that concept.