Mutant coronavirus in the United Kingdom sets off alarms but its importance remains unclear

Hope so. Thing is, it has been constantly mutating during development of vaccines. Like a moving target.

Viruses mutate all the time. Coronaviruses have more genetic sequencing than influenza from what I've read hence why we could never delevop a vaccine against one. The flu vaccine targets many randomized strands of flu. The vaccine for covid 19 is targeting this very specific coronavirus an genetic mutations. These vaccines could be only effect against this however ineffective to sars or mers. It doesn't matter just my point. If this mutation is proven to do nothing to the overall spike or make it more deadly than we have nothing to worry about. It wont matter if it spreads faster or not.

I don't want to go QANON, but I remain skeptical that this was a naturally occurring event. IF someone really wanted a mess, they did a good job.

It is a moving target for sure. I believe this was man made, but can't state it as fact. It figures it would happen on our watch. Climate change is a million year process, but we still should try to manage it. Which is about as useful as managing an earthquake or hurricane. Again, on our watch.