The talk of the virus potentially being on a path to vaccine escape is very worrying. Sounds like we might end up in a situation where we have seasonal COVID like we do with the flu :(
That was the endpoint regardless. Almost no one thinks this is going to be a smallpox situation where the vaccine is so effective that the virus gets eradicated. Almost certainly, covid is going to turn into an endemic disease just like everything else. Remember: all diseases were novel once!
But most of the population will be immune, so outbreaks will be limited and spread slowly. Ideally that immunity will come via vaccination instead of infection. And yes, it remains possible that if it mutates as rapidly as influenza, that we'll need a yearly "covid shot" to plug the gap.