Delta, so far, seems to infect whole households with ease in a way that we didn't see. Sydney, Australia is on severe lockdown at the moment thanks to a delta outbreak (it hasn't helped that, like many countries that handled the lockdown/test-and-trace methodology well, we fucked up the vaccination program).

I would imagine that a combination of mass vaccination (which seems to reduce transmission, although not by as much as was hoped) - and continued reasonable measures (mask wearing in crowded indoor places, better ventilation) we could achieve eventual elimination.

Alternately, on route to this less-than-comfortable-outcome, we could make strides in treating the long-term illness, improve short-term treatments and improve vaccines.

The other option is that maybe we'll work our way through the entire Greek alphabet of variations (and beyond; perhaps the Omega variation is followed by double-Alpha) with a large pool of sick people and vaccine escape whack-a-mole because people decided there was no options between "live in a bunker" and "free for all".