The US CDC estimates that 9% of infected people 65 and older die of this virus. There are 54 million 65+ in the US. The R0 of Delta is estimated to be ~6. Even if there was no overshoot it'd mean an attack rate of ~85%. If age based attack rates were uniform that'd mean over 4.1 million dead in seniors alone.
Through May, the CDC estimates that 615,824 people over 65 have died of the virus out of 766,611 total deaths.
If the US was uniformly infected by the virus the CDC estimates with an attack rate of 85%, over 4.5 million of all ages would die.
The vaccines have the ability to avert a tremendous amount of death. But only if we use them.
On the hazards of financial incentives for vaccines..
I'm surprised no jurisdiction has followed what airlines do for freeing up seats on an overbooked flight. Delta uses a silent auction system for passenger bidding. It has worked marvellously for the past decade. They never struggle to free up seats.
You could probably do the same for vaccines. People would come to a vaccine clinic and set bids for financial incentives and get the financial incentives upon receiving their vaccine dose if they bid right.
It'd get people to come and dissuade holding out.
There's a lot of game theory and economic auction theory that some jurisdictions should really tap into at this point.