The people commenting are not really epidemiologists or infectious disease experts, but it seems reasonable to say it
could all settle down in a year or so. On the other hand, it may not. I think I said much the same here months ago.
Covid is different from the common cold, which is caused by a bunch of different viruses including some coronaviruses, in that as well as causing an initial respiratory illness, it can cause a severe systemic inflammatory condition rather like sepsis. This is what kills most people who die from Covid.
With flu, over years, people have acquired a layered immunity through multiple exposure to wild viruses and, in some cases, vaccines, and that immune response is now quite elaborate for most people, not so much for older people whose immune response is not as good. So the immune system has "seen" quite a few variations of flu, and has figured out enough to recognise most new variations. We have not yet reached the same place with Covid, but in time will get there. A combination of vaccination, perhaps boosters, and exposure (hopefully asymptomatic or mild) to wild virus will add to the immune systems ability to respond flexibly. As with flu, every now and again, a variant will come along which beats the immune system.
