I take the overall pandemic seriously but also think many articles are just click bait. The article seems to want to inspire nervousness without much fact to back why.
Excerpt, with bolded text from me:
The new COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa can evade the antibodies that attack it in treatments using blood plasma from previously recovered patients, and may reduce the efficacy of the current line of vaccines, scientists said on Wednesday.
Regarding the "can evade blood plasma antibodies", the article later adds:
Convalescent blood plasma from previous patients has not been shown to be effective when administered to severely ill patients requiring intensive care for COVID-19, but it is approved in several countries as an emergency measure.
So, blood plasma not effective when treating seriously ill patients with "normal" Covid-19 but also if they have this new variant it can "evade the blood plasma antibodies"? I guess it is not clear to me as a reader how effective blood plasma is for normal Covid vs the new variant.
Regarding the "may reduce the efficacy of vaccines", the key word is "may" to me. They offered no proof and only said it needs to be studied.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Covid-19 mutations based on what I have read. I don't know enough if each is considered a "variant", maybe a variant is a more sever mutation? But they article doesn't have any clear concrete facts, in my opinion, that makes me worry and it seems like clickbait. But as always, an expert will chime in and I'll learn more.