There has been an unprecedented amount of work related to developing proper protocols, therapeutics and vaccines related to Covid and its impacts on the body. However, it was only 8 months ago that hospitals started seeing and treating cases in the US... and as remarkable as the progress has been, we are still in the extremely early stages of the medical community's eventual solutions.

Everyone mentions "flattening the curve" (which is driven by behavior) but the real work is on "raising the line" of being able to understand and deal with COVID from a healthcare perspective... and most of that is still just in the theory part of its lifecycle. Like you stated, I don't expect Covid to fully go away (or even to have a vaccine that eliminates all variations/mutations) but where we differ is that I expect that by this time next year there will be a "new normal" in healthcare and how COVID-19 is treated.

The prevention and treatment protocols for COVID-19, which is a disease that can be deadly or leave someone with irreversible organ damage, are still in early development. So right now, when those aren't in place and hospitals are being overwhelmed with patients, is the worst possible time to catch the virus... just like catching AIDS in 1985 was incredibly different from catching it today.

As for COVID-19, I agree that your general age and health may play a part in your rolling the dice and winning if you are unfortunate enough to get this disease. It is also true that experts generally agree that 80% of people who get Covid (regardless of age or comorbidities) don't require hospitalization and 45-50% don't even show symptoms (but are still able to infect others). But, I don't think its smart to take the chance that I will be in the 20% just to get my rocks off when the actual infections in the wild are exploding and our healthcare system is about to be overwhelmed.

Finally, I learned an important lesson when I got burned a little earlier in the year because I thought I might have been exposed (I wasn't) and I got tested to find out. But, I did that in the middle of the summer when things were in the 2nd wave and cases were raging out west (but not around me) and it literally took 14 days to receive the results of that test because the labs were pushed past their limits.

How good your care is (if you need it) is partially dependent upon how many resources are available to take care of you. But, that was just a test and there were ICU beds fully available if I was unfortunate enough to need one... So, at this moment, I am taking that lesson to heart and waiting it out before resuming those kinds of activities and I would encourage everyone else to do the same (which is why I posted my statement about shutting it down).