It looks like the B.1.617 variant that's ravaging India will probably not impact areas that are mostly vaccinated, so the US is probably safe from it.
Some evidence for this:
- B.1.617 is now the dominant strain in London, but caseload has remained flat.
This is despite the fact that the UK has been vaccinating with the somewhat weaker AstraZeneca vaccine, and has fully vaccinated less than half of their residents.
- Israel had an outbreak of B.1.617 that failed to propagate. They're the most vaccinated country in the world, with over 80% having received both doses of Pfizer: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/7-cases-of-covid-19-indian-variant-discovered-in-israel-health-min-665354
It's a reasonable bet that the virus will continue to mutate, but at least the mutations so far have not been able to get a foothold with vaccinated individuals. There are isolated reports of breakthrough cases, but not enough to create a runaway infection that spreads throughout the population.
None of this takes away from the fact that a lot of people are dying in India on a daily basis (unofficial estimates from The Economist claim 6000-30000 deaths per day), and if we want to be rid of COVID once and for all, we're going to need to vaccinate the whole world. This is something the US should take a very active role in funding, for its own benefit as well as the benefit of the rest of the world.