Seems like a similar situation in your part of the country, then. I think it's risky, with the numbers still being so high in the UK.
I think it's inevitable with the way the official messaging has gone. I think the assumption in the UK is now, "everyone is going to catch it," with a few provisos about luck and vaccines. Rather than responding by wondering how to vaccinate more of the highest risk groups or how to protect those who can't take or don't respond to the vaccine - people have opted for "if we get it out of the way now, we'll all be safer in a few months."
Massive gamble of course, and utterly dependant on vaccine efficacy and the vulnerable hiding while the virus runs through the population. If it "works" then the hospitals don't get (much) busier than they are now through the winter, leaving enough capacity to handle the winter flu if not the full reinstatement of normal healthcare. Deaths should start falling as vaccine boosters and new vaccinations kick in.
If the theory is right then covid will become a "flu-like" problem this winter and into the future, and we have years of experience of ignoring those deaths. The calculation leaves out the human factor of all the people who will be in that new statistic and the fact that a lot of medical staff have been running on empty for a while.
Ultimately though, as crass and impersonal as the statistics sound - the one that will count for most will be excess deaths (covid and otherwise) over the next couple of years. Will the "all catch it at once" approach leave the UK worse off overall than countries reopening more cautiously? I've seen statistical models that suggest it won't make much difference (only vax rates really make a difference in those models).
At any rate, the UK are currently heading into "herd immunity by infection" for kids in particular. No masks in shops etc are no surprise given that there's basically no mitigation effort at all in schools now, and the case rate amongst the 12-18s is through the roof.