COVID-19 Outbreak Information Updates (Reboot) [over 150.000,000 US cases (est.), 6,422,520 US hospitilizations, 1,148,691 US deaths.]
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hea...ew-strain-of-coronavirus-what-you-should-know
We may need to take a booster shot for the new variants. I'll do so if needed. We are still learning
Indeed, variants are likely to be the next phase of the pandemic - a phase that is already well underway. So far, research suggests that existing vaccines protect well against the dominant variant B.1.1.7. So in the race between vaccine and variant dominance, B.1.1.7 doesn't appear to be poised to break vaccine protection. Of course people refusing it in large numbers, or the inability to deploy vaccine to outbreak locations will challenge those dynamics.
I think we're still figuring out if P.1 (Brazil) is protected by current vaccine. P.1 is in full spread in parts of Canada, which means that if P.1 becomes dominant over B.1.1.7, the question of vaccine protection for P.1 will become more immediate.
Early research suggests that existing vaccine will provide meaningful (though possibly not as strong) protection from P.1 and B.1.351 (South Africa) - so even if not as strong it's still far better. Moderna has already said it expects to have a variant booster by November.
Of course new, more worrisome variants can always emerge and they tend to emerge from uncontrolled outbreak situations - which is why it's not enough for the first world to get vaccinated and leave the rest of the world to fend for themselves. India already has a local variant (B.1.617) that is growing in its share of infection.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-coronavirus-b117-variant-us-dominant-strain
https://www.ft.com/content/5a2a5807-13de-4031-a8a4-28cb7a5ff307
https://www.biospace.com/article/oc...ffers-hope-for-india-s-recent-covid-19-surge/