The word to know is "endemic."
It is the future of covid-19.
Coronavirus started in one province of China as an epidemic ("a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community"). Then it spread beyond the Wuhan province, across China and around the globe, and became a pandemic ("(of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world"). And as we get used to living with it, develop a degree of herd immunity (but never 100%, it's not going away entirely, ever), it will become endemic ("(of a disease or condition) regularly found among people or in a certain area").
Just as the flu is. Just as the common cold is. It is not going away, ever.
So far so good in your post. But I think you're wrong about "life as you knew it is probably a thing of the past". I think that's off. I think we'll get back to normal as we achieve a significant degree of herd immunity.
Will people continue to die of covid-19? Yes. And they die every year of the flu. And pneumonia. But the % who die of covid will drop dramatically as we reach some steady state of herd immunity, enough of a natural buffer among the population that the disease doesn't find so many ultra-vulnerable victims in any given season.
That's the future. Covid-19 endemic to the human population. And us getting on with life.