I don't usually post mouse studies, but for those who don't like needles, a skin patch vaccine is in the early stages of development. The vaccine itself is very similar to the Novavax vaccine, with spike protein and the same saponin adjuvant. Mice given two patches 21 days apart developed good neutralizing antibody levels and were protected when challenged with a dose of virus that would be lethal to unvaccinated mice.
The way it works is that the patch has tiny protruding spikes that poke into the skin, where there are lots of immune cells that respond to the foreign protein. It does look like there is some skin irritation, and because of that, I think I'd rather have a shot. But I think there are a lot of people out there who would prefer this option.
Link to study: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.30.446357v1.full.pdf
These are US mortality numbers from 2017 through the end of March 2021 for two different age groups. For those 25-44 mortality is still elevated well above normal variation. For older adults (65-74), death rates are a bit high for spring, but still not more than what you'd expect for the middle of winter in a bad flu year. That's a major improvement over a short period of time.
Part of the difference is that flu is harder on older people, so the flu death peaks are higher. But I suspect that a major factor is that older people are more likely to be vaccinated. While it is true that people 25-44 are at lower risk from covid than are younger people, that doesn't mean that the risk to them isn't still significant.
Link to data : https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm