You are not prohibited from buying back shares within 30 days. This just means you cannot claim the loss on the shares you bought back under the wash sale rules UNTIL you finally sell those shares. At that point you can adjust you base on the new shares and still use the loss to offset any gains.

This rule is meant to prevent people from selling down stocks in December to take a tax loss and then buying them back. It does not stop you from selling and rebuying for tax gains. In the end you lose nothing and there is a long time between now and December 31st.