You're another one of those posters who doesn't read, eh? I don't hope people will die, I just hope that if they're going to die, it's nearby so I can get dibs on some of their stuff if it's cool. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. They've chosen to roll the dice anyway and what am I supposed to do about it, wear masks for the next 70 years to protect them while they walk around mask-free and unvaccinated? Hell no. If someone wants to jump off a cliff to commit suicide, I do not believe I have a responsibility to stand at the bottom in hopes of cushioning their fall as they land on me. Likewise, if someone wants to skip the vaccine because they think COVID is no big deal or the vaccine is worse, it's not my job to wear a mask around them until the end of time in hopes that I don't get them sick. It's their job to take precautions... or choose not to.
I hope they choose to take precautions. If they don't and get sick and die as a result, I'll hope they had some records because I'm getting into LPs and would like to boost my collection.
As for emerging variants, my position (as stated before) is that if new variants emerge, we react to them as information becomes known.
"Follow the science" carries clout with the general population but is something of a stupid phrase for actual scientists like myself, since an actual scientist would be focused on only one thing: the quantitative threshold / acceptance criteria for when masks etc. become necessary / unnecessary. The CDC thus far hasn't had sufficient spine to establish such criteria but most state public health officials (red and blue alike) have gone ahead and done so, and their criteria is largely rational. Here in the Bay Area, the criteria is metrics-based and rates drop below a threshold, counties are rightfully relaxing requirements.