Vaccine question
@Ethan . Sooner or later another coronavirus is bound to emerge from somewhere (probably the same place as thisnone

) . Although it will be a different virus to Covid will all the research and knowledge gained from this give us a decent headstart in producing another vaccine or will it be back to square one?
Coronaviruses (and RNA viruses in general) don't have quite the same enthusiasm for mutation as DNA viruses, but mutation has happened already and will happen again. Some of the mutations may create mutants which are more infectious or more pathogenic, but some will be less of both too. As far as the human response goes, it is expected that people will have a degree of cross reactivity between (whether vaccine or infection-based) which will provide at least some response to the next version. So it is like your immune system won't specifically recognise the new mutation, but will intuitively know it is a wrong 'un and attack it anyway. This is what happens with flu. Most people don't get flu each season even though it is a "new" strain because of their innate immunity and cross reactivity from the catalogue of previous exposures built up over years.
The other factor is how long vaccine immunity lasts. I think it may well last some years, but as we work through that time period, each time a new mutation is identified, the vaccine can be updated to cover it, so unvaccinated people (depending where the national programme is cut off) get complete coverage, and the booster will probably only be needed by a subset of the previously vaccinated population. We won't be back to square one.
The Govt are working hard to say that the vaccines are not a magic bullet, mainly because they don't want people to get complacent now with the finish line in sight. But at the levels of efficacy announced, and effectiveness in older people, they really are a massive game changer. We just need to make sure we keep our noses clean until we actually get a good proportion of the population vaccinated.