Slack / Private Message Drop — page 353

@Andrew Rambaut - they mentioned that the UK had tested the virus against convalescent plasma and there was _no_ effect on neutralization? I'm not quite sure that has actually been done yet - do you know? [2021-01-02 12:41:06] [Andrew Rambaut] I have not heard the neutralization information yet - but I have been off the daily calls. I guess this was done in PHE Colindale so they may have talked to Denmark directly. [2021-01-02 12:41:56] [Andrew Rambaut] Just been chatting with Mads and have offered to help them set up a simple BEAST run to estimate the growth rate for the initial stages. Might be a bit too little data just now. [2021-01-02 12:42:47] [Andrew Rambaut] They clearly have one main lineage that is growing (and a handful of other introductions that are probably going no where). [2021-01-02 12:57:56] [Kristian Andersen] Thanks Andrew - I suspect they might have talked to them directly, or they're just going with what Twitter is saying since people are confused... It'd be great if the DK folks could get a little help setting up BEAST. I enquired this morning about their ability to use the genomics directly to estimate growth rates and they seemed very confused - I honestly don't think there's a single person in DK who knows how to run it. Amazing dataset though! Separately, I'm talking to Mads' boss, so I'll mention the need to use the genomics data more directly as well. [2021-01-02 13:25:45] [Kristian Andersen] Btw - that NYT article is really really good! Haven't read the AP one... [2021-01-02 13:38:49] [Eddie Holmes] Frankie is indeed a total twat. I can't stand to even think about him. Agree about the NYT article. I spent a lot of time talking to them. They've got loads of data from December and earlier. Clearly zero evidence for a lab escape and there were was zero chat about it in China at the time. The WHO team are leaving this week. Seems to me it is going to be a complete waste of time because they are not going to talk to the key people. China is just going to push the 'it's not China' line. [2021-01-02 13:47:38] [Kristian Andersen] Yeah, I think people who keep insisting that all this weirdness from China MUST be because it came from a lab just don't understand outbreak response - it's not, it's just politics and power play. We see this every damn time there's an outbreak - I'm sure @Robert Garry remember when he got his visa pulled for sniffing around too much... :wink: [2021-01-02 13:48:30] [Kristian Andersen] Not ideal, by no means, but it's not exactly 'weird' or 'unusual' - it's just the typical bullshit. [2021-01-02 14:02:24] [Eddie Holmes] Yes, in this case it is Xi Jinping pushing the 'it's not from China' line in an attempt to restore some domestic pride in China. I'm sure he's saying this to bolster his own popularity at home rather than for international politics.