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Slack / Private Message Drop, p.260 [SLACK_000474] · slack_pm:msg:02716

Date: 2020-11-17 09:05
Type: chat message · slack
recipient: Robert F. Garry, Edward C. Holmes, Andrew Rambaut
speaker: Kristian G. Andersen

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One thing from the preprint I agree about though - and mentioned when I testified in front of the Danish parlamentyesterday "The rapid acquisition and spread of SARS-CoV-2 mutations in minks suggests that if a similarphenomenon of host adaptation had occurred upon its jump into humans, those human-specific mutations would likely have reached fixation already before the first SARS-CoV-2 genomes were generated". That could very likelybe true - ultra fast fixation during the first few rounds of human to human transmission.

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2020-11-17 09:05 Kristian G. Andersen open

What a dick move from Frankie Bollocks... Good for you calling him out @Andrew Rambaut!
2020-11-17 09:05 Kristian G. Andersen

One thing from the preprint I agree about though - and mentioned when I testified in front of the Danish parlamentyesterday "The rapid acquisition and spread of SARS-CoV-2 mutations in minks suggests that if a similarphenomenon of host adaptation had occurred upon its jump into humans, those human-specific mutations would likely have reached fixation already before the first SARS-CoV-2 genomes were generated". That could very likelybe true - ultra fast fixation during the first few rounds of human to human transmission.
2020-11-17 09:08 Andrew Rambaut open

Yes. I have been saying that for years. Clear in avian flu too (the same mutations come up). Adaptations to the within-host environment are very rapid. Adaptations to transmission will be much slower. Thus viruses that jump and spread are likely already able to spread but may need some tweaking for within-host growth.
2020-11-17 09:09 Andrew Rambaut open

The other thing that virologists struggle with is that better receptor binding does not equal fitter viruses.
2020-11-17 09:13 Andrew Rambaut open

But even with the mink, there are lots of lineages in Marion's trees that don't have Y453F.
2020-11-17 09:13 Kristian G. Andersen open

Yup, I have been hearing you saying this for years - for Ebola too. For SARS we actually got to see some of those mutations because we captured the intermediate host - would be very interesting to see for SARS2 as well, but the mink data is definitely interesting in this regard.

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