This is what she said
“The virus can’t completely mutate because the spike protein has to interact with the Ace2 receptor on the surface of the human cell in order to get inside that cell.
“If it changes its spike protein so much that it can’t interact with that receptor, then it’s not going to be able to get inside the cell.
“There aren’t very many places for the viruses to go to have something that will evade immunity but still be a really infective virus.
“So I don’t think there’s an enormous amount of concern that we’re suddenly going to see a switch to something that evades existing immunity.”
“We tend to see a slow genetic drift of the [pandemic flu] viruses and there will be gradual immunity developing in the population as there is to all the other seasonal coronaviruses,”
“We already live with four different human coronaviruses that we don’t really ever think about very much and eventually SARS-CoV-2 will become one of those. It’s just a question of how long it’s going to take to get there and what measures we’re going to take to manage it in the meantime.”
I think it comes down to the principle that one way or another we need to build our immunity to the existing variants, not worry about speculative super-variants. We can do that via a vaccine - safer for ourselves and our neighbours. Or via infection - at higher risk to ourselves and our neighbours.
SARS2 won't be leaving. If it mutates into something that evades the vaccines and past infection, it won't be SARS2 because it'll have had to lose too many characteristics of the spike protein.
Chances are we'll all pick up SARS2 infections multiple times in our lives. Its characteristics don't lend itself to eradication, its presence in multiple types of animals (from other primates to cats and dogs, mink and beavers) says it's sticking around.
The issue now is how hard do you fight it and for how long. The UK has effectively abandoned hope of stopping it spreading through the under 12s, and is only grudgingly offering vaccines in the 12-17s (more to protect their education than their health). It's going to be a long hard winter for the vulnerable, the ones who can't take/get benefit from a vaccine, and the unlucky.
Those unvaxxed by choice have limited time to choose. The UK won't do much to stop them getting infected now - unfortunately they'll probably kill some of the vaccinated and/or vulnerable along the way to their own version of basic immunity.