Slack / Private Message Drop — page 310

I totally agree with her on this tweet though - a lot of high profile folks doing a lot of shit 'science'. [2020-12-14 09:17:37] [Robert Garry] Don't get me started - just out of the COVID review study section - let's just say that I regret not putting in a competitive application... [2020-12-14 09:24:33] [Kristian Andersen] Hah. Next time [2020-12-14 09:32:02] [Kristian Andersen] @Andrew Rambaut - what's this UK SARS2 mutation stuff everybody is talking about today? [2020-12-14 09:32:17] [Andrew Rambaut] Oh my fuck [2020-12-14 09:33:10] [Kristian Andersen] Oh boy. [2020-12-14 09:33:31] [Andrew Rambaut] Here is a summary I have been sending round - is that this variant has spike N501Y (similar to an outbreak in South Africa but apparently independent and unrelated) but it also has 13 other non-synonymous mutations and 3 deletions. There is some evidence that it is spreading quickly in SE England but it is not clear if this just means that R is high in this region and this is just the variant that is involved. There is no evidence that the course of infection is different but data is limited. Lab work is being started urgently. There is phylogenetic evidence that 3 cases in Denmark and one in New South Wales may have been the result of import from the UK cluster. [2020-12-14 09:34:50] [Andrew Rambaut] Some estimates that Erik Volz and I did independently suggests that this may be spreading at a higher rate than other variants but we can't rule out just the luck virus getting into high R areas. [2020-12-14 09:35:42] [Andrew Rambaut] However - and this is what really interests me is the 14 mutations and 3 deletions in one short (in time) branch. I think this must be the result of transmission from a chronic infection. [2020-12-14 09:39:05] [Kristian Andersen] Thanks Andrew for the background - that's very interesting (and I'll keep this to this channel for now). It's great to hear that the UK now have systems in place to even detect "mutations of potential interest" - what it means is obviously a much longer affair. I get annoyed with all the communication that's completely dug in - "it's no issue at all" and "OMG it's mutating". Can we just agree that the truth is somewhere in-between and that it always takes time to figure out? [2020-12-14 09:40:46] [Kristian Andersen]