Chat message

Slack / Private Message Drop, p.416 [SLACK_000630] · slack_pm:msg:04308

Date: 2021-01-18 10:42
Type: chat message · slack
recipient: Kristian G. Andersen, Edward C. Holmes, Andrew Rambaut
speaker: Robert F. Garry

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Yes good - I chaired the study section that reviewed the last round of AIDS clinical trials groups grants a few months back. Karim and his wife clearly had the best application of the bunch. Not close.

In context

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2021-01-18 10:17 Robert F. Garry open

That's worse than expected. Much worse.
2021-01-18 10:26 Kristian G. Andersen open

It's bad indeed - very bad. To me it's not unexpected though - the RSA lineage has multiple mutations that had already been shown to affect immunity, so I can't say I'm surprised (this is unlike b117 - that one has less mutations that seem related to escape). It's much worse than I could have _hoped_ for though. Add to this that I'm getting increasingly concerned that this is because Eek leads to general immune escape and isn't just linked to changing asimple B cell epitope.
2021-01-18 10:30 Kristian G. Andersen open

I like this Salim guy though - very very good.
2021-01-18 10:39 Kristian G. Andersen open

Salim Abdool Karim - holy smokes, such a good scientific communicator. Probably the best I have seen during the entire pandemic - I feel like an idiot I didn't know about him before watching this presentation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salim_Abdool_Karim
2021-01-18 10:42 Robert F. Garry

Yes good - I chaired the study section that reviewed the last round of AIDS clinical trials groups grants a few months back. Karim and his wife clearly had the best application of the bunch. Not close.
2021-01-18 10:50 Kristian G. Andersen open

I'm impressed.
2021-01-18 10:55 Robert F. Garry open

Doug, Nelly, Eek and N417T fit - binds to ace2 like hell - and very immune evasive.
2021-01-18 11:00 Kristian G. Andersen open

Exactly - Nelly and her bad friends. "In about 50% of cases there was no recognition of the new virus by preexisting antibodies". Some of the most chilling words of the pandemic. Let's not fool ourselves that T cells will come and save the day - this is fucking serious (and is what a good proportion of us have been warning about for months -many months before even seeing these new variants). This is one sly fucker.
2021-01-18 11:10 Robert F. Garry open

No way to sugar coat it. My expectations are lowered a lot.

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