Slack / Private Message Drop — page 731

[Eddie Holmes] That's an important article Bob - tacit administration by the intelligence community that they have nothing. They seem to be putting the correct hypothesis first. [2021-04-27 13:32:26] [Robert Garry] Indeed - there is a bill re China that's working it's way thru Congress that would require the release of the "intel." I'm all for it. Move on from the DISTRACTions - get a real plan for following the animals - do the science. [2021-04-27 13:49:09] [Kristian Andersen] Looking forward to reading that article. I was on a call with folks from the White House oversight committee this morning talking about all of this stuff - they're still pretty focused on lab escapes, but definitely see the need for "follow the animals". Hopefully they came away from that conversation realizing that one is much more likely and much more important to really 'investigate' than the other. The intelligence community ain't got nothing. Zip. [2021-04-27 14:07:47] [Eddie Holmes] The "oversight" committee is well named them. [2021-04-27 14:12:29] [Robert Garry] We had four years where the clowns were literally in charge (think Asher). Couple that with the desire to be "strong" on China," early misinfo and transparency "issues," and you can see where they are coming from. The slog is uphill. [2021-04-27 18:44:55] [Kristian Andersen] Are we starting to think maybe P681H/R could be a bad boy? Looking at the most recent variants, assuming B.1.617 might plausibly be both more transmissible and escape some level of immunity, the latter comes down to L452R and the NTD, while the former may be linked to P681R (it doesn't have N501Y). P681H/R absent from both P.1 and B.1.351 (I'm getting increasingly more convinced 351 isn't more transmissible, but I'm less sure about P.1). [shared file(s): Screen Shot 2021-04-27 at 6.42.05 PM.png] [2021-04-27 18:45:51] [Kristian Andersen] If looking outside the spike, what do we know about N? An interest pattern around position 203/204/205 here [shared file(s): Screen Shot 2021-04-27 at 6.39.40 PM.png] [2021-04-27 18:46:28] [Kristian Andersen] Could N be involved in transmissibility? Live link here: https://outbreak.info/compare-lineages?pango=B.1.1.7&pango=B.1.351&pango=P.1& pango=[...]gene=ORF7a&gene=ORF7b&gene=ORF8&gene=N&gene=ORF10&threshold= [2021-04-27 18:47:08] [Kristian Andersen] Interferon? [2021-04-27 19:18:06] [Eddie Holmes] I had at chat with the genomics people here yesterday and they said that most of the people who are coming into our hotel quarantine system from India have B.1.1.7. Apparently 20% on one flight were infected.