What's particularly worrying is that all vaccines use the same spike protein (although AZ doesn't have the pre-fusion conformation stabilising mutation which a number of other vaccines do). So if this substantially lowers efficacy of one vaccine it will have directionally the same effect on all of them. Of course the response of efficacy to antibody titre and other correlates of protection is non-linear so it could be that AZ was just low enough for the mutation to kick them into the "doesn't work" zone.
I expect that come late summer we'll all be getting another booster of some sort against whatever mix of variants is around. The trick will be prediction although we are helped by the fact that both mRNA and vectored vaccines can be changed and produced quite quickly.
I also think that the emergence of this variant may save lives in the end because it forces to the front of everyone's mind the necessity of vaccinating the entire world and may make it politically easier to ship vaccine to the poor countries of the world before the rich countries have finished their vaccination programmes.
I expect that come late summer we'll all be getting another booster of some sort against whatever mix of variants is around. The trick will be prediction although we are helped by the fact that both mRNA and vectored vaccines can be changed and produced quite quickly.
I also think that the emergence of this variant may save lives in the end because it forces to the front of everyone's mind the necessity of vaccinating the entire world and may make it politically easier to ship vaccine to the poor countries of the world before the rich countries have finished their vaccination programmes.