Chat message

Slack / Private Message Drop, p.1032 [SLACK_001246] · slack_pm:msg:10787

Date: 2021-11-26 09:37
Type: chat message · slack
recipient: Kristian G. Andersen, Robert F. Garry, Edward C. Holmes
speaker: Andrew Rambaut

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What we are waiting for now is genomes from other parts of RSA. The initial genomes were extremely targeted to auniversity outbreak. Interestingly they had already noticed the rise in SGTF in multiple provinces before sequencingNu. There were not doing much genome sequencing so it is a bit of a rush to get samples from across the country.So if the new ones lie outside Jo'burg then that gives an older root and more likely a non-RSA origin. If they are all within Jo'burg clade then point source (possibly across the border in Botswana or somewhere).

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2021-11-26 09:19 Robert F. Garry open

Ha - Yeah - and the fact that it's Christmas time may not be purely a coincidence. I was thinking of posting it onvirological but I like the approach of something a bit more substantial put up pretty quickly---
2021-11-26 09:29 Kristian G. Andersen open

Sounds good Andrew - and happy to help out with this. This definitely is a weirdo strain, so I think we need to consider seriously the potential animal link - also because of the timing.
2021-11-26 09:30 Robert F. Garry open

Let's do it quickly though- I can update the Christmas card if that's helpful...
2021-11-26 09:32 Robert F. Garry open

I'm already getting over-whelmed with media requests - on the big UK radio stations wanted to interview at 11pm - Ididn't...
2021-11-26 09:37 Andrew Rambaut

What we are waiting for now is genomes from other parts of RSA. The initial genomes were extremely targeted to auniversity outbreak. Interestingly they had already noticed the rise in SGTF in multiple provinces before sequencingNu. There were not doing much genome sequencing so it is a bit of a rush to get samples from across the country.So if the new ones lie outside Jo'burg then that gives an older root and more likely a non-RSA origin. If they are all within Jo'burg clade then point source (possibly across the border in Botswana or somewhere).
2021-11-26 09:42 Andrew Rambaut open

New Botswana ones are quite interspersed and possibly basal: [shared file(s): image.png]
2021-11-26 10:05 Robert F. Garry open

"The infections were detected in a man who had returned to Hong Kong from South Africa this month, and later in another man staying across the hall in the same quarantine hotel. (Hong Kong requires almost all overseas arrivalsto quarantine in hotels for two to three weeks.) *The virus's genetic sequence was identical in both men*, suggesting airborne transmission, according to the city's Center for Health Protection. Both men were vaccinated." Sequences don't look identical on the tree...
2021-11-26 10:06 Andrew Rambaut open

Omicron it is!! https://twitter.com/mvankerkhove/status/1464293032115777536
2021-11-26 10:09 Kristian G. Andersen open

Damn - they might not want you anywhere near their origin investigations, but at least they have you signed up asNaming Master! :wink:

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