Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
I remember the times when "experts" would be interviewed saying that the existing vaccines would only need to tweaked a little to be able to cope with new variants when they arose and that this process should only take something like six weeks to a couple of months. That's certainly not been the case with the Delta variant and so I'm sure that it'll be the same for this new variant - it'll reach the UK eventually and I think all we can do is hope that it doesn't turn out to be as bad as feared because I don't see us being given vaccines next year which will make us completely safe from it.
In defence of the "experts"

The current vaccines are dealing with the Delta variant. If you look at the graphs of cases/hospitalisations/deaths, they go up and down together - until the vaccine rollout. UK daily cases are as high as they've ever been with the Delta, but hospitalisations and deaths are low.

I don't know what the six weeks to a couple of months refers to, but I can't imagine it's research+development+manufacture+rollout+complete replacement of previous vaccine stocks all in that time.

If anyone is holding their breath for a vaccine to make us completely safe, then I'd advise against it.