Masks haven't been shown to reduce transmission, they have abundant deleterious effects upon wearing them, and they could even worsen transmission by increasing the net release of aerosols (due to the larger net volume of air moved as a result of the user inhaling air that has relatively more CO2 and therefore relatively less O2 than a normal breath; that's without accounting for the possibility that masks actually nebulize what would have been respiratory droplets into fine aerosols as the plosive force forces the droplets through the mask fiber mesh)

So even if you don't accept that we shouldn't try to fight the inevitable (which you should accept, but I don't feel like going back and forth about it), recommending mask mandates as an intervention is a foolish strategy. They've never been shown to work in an RCT and they certainly haven't worked in real-world community settings.

> And letting it run its course is going to kill a lot of people

I think you missed the point. It's running its course either way. We had insanely high mask compliance in america, even in red states, we've had on-and-off lockdowns for a year in blue areas, we've had widespread vaccination, and it's still spreading to and from vaccinated people no problem.

Furthermore you seem to not understand that different members of the population are at different risk levels. For example, people in their 20s can acquire the SARS-2 infection, beat it off, and have robust, enduring natural immunity, which will prevent them from subsequent infection and especially from transmitting it. Vaccination alone does not achieve that result. Thus why you're fighting against quicksand.