They've mentioned the new Pfizer doses ordered recently will be for booster doses in the autumn, but the BBC site says that these are still the same as the current ones, not modified for variants.
It goes on to say that Curevac is one of the ones that can be modified - also an mRNA vaccine. I think we have ordered 50 million doses, but it's also a double dose one, so 25 million people.
Not sure what the estimate for adults in the UK is, but it's something like 50 million, isn't it? So only enough for half the population with that one.
Which others have already been ordered that will be good for the variants? I know they are working on tweaks for Pfizer and Moderna, but it doesn't sound like they'll be ready yet if the new order isn't going to be for those ones. (But then how is the curevac one? they haven't even approved that one as a current one).
And as a side note, presumably any of the newer mRNA vaccines will also be needing cold or ultracold storage like Moderna and Pfizer, which will make the programme much slower to run in the autumn than the current one, if they decide to only use those. But that is all they are using in the US, and they have done as many doses per population as here (and a great many more doses in total) - how are all the little pharmacies and small towns and so on managing with that, then? They are much more spread out than here, and we can't manage to get the ultra-cold vaccine out to most places.