'others' at that point are adults who chose to not get a shot. So fuck them.
The <16 (18?) crowd, i think trials are going on, but have no idea on the timeline. I know a few tweens/teens (son's friends) that are still really scared about the virus despite their parents explaining how rare kids that age are severely affected. fingers crossed that any variants don't start affecting the kiddos.
here is an excerpt from an interview with Moderna CEO on the vax vs the variants. This is from Jan 25th, so not the most up to date, but perusing other articles, no one is saying that the current vaxs are helpless vs the variants and that all of them should guard against severe illness.
So vs the UK variant, there is basically no change to level of protection. Vs the SA variant, the efficacy is lower and there may be some danger to older recipients (whose immune systems are weaker) ~ a year down the road. There may need to be a booster for that variant or it may go into a flu-shot like cycle if this stuff keeps popping up.