Slack / Private Message Drop — page 887

So, a single point mutation. No evidence of "inserting a furin cleavage site"? [2021-05-27 18:16:31] [Kristian Andersen] Correct - and it's not her work. [2021-05-27 18:18:46] [Eddie Holmes] :+1: [2021-05-27 18:56:56] [Robert Garry] on the shit scale Zimmer's NYT is about 6 or 7 - most of the rest are 10s [2021-05-27 18:58:31] [Robert Garry] Except for Amy - 0 on the shit scale [2021-05-27 19:15:18] [Eddie Holmes] Useful preprint from David online [2021-05-27 19:20:18] [Kristian Andersen] Yeah, just reading it... [2021-05-27 19:23:30] [Eddie Holmes] Says the same as our Cell paper re: RaTG13. [2021-05-27 19:35:28] [Robert Garry] Found this highly interesting: "One possible recent disruption that caused widespread and unusual movements of animals in China and may have increased the permeability of this barrier, was the dramatic shortage of pork products in 2019 attributable to an African swine fever virus (ASFV) outbreak impacting 100s of millions of pigs in China38. Such a major disruption in the food supply chain will have potentially brought humans into increased contact with Sarbecovirus infected animals as i) exotic meats replaced pork, ii) animals from rural locations were brought to city markets and/or iii) by meat from infected animals being transported in cold chain processes." [2021-05-27 19:37:04] [Kristian Andersen] I didn't know this bit either: "Still, the fact that viruses in the Yunnan clade (consisting of RmYN02, RpYN06 and PrC31) were sampled from three different Rhinolophus species supports the hypothesis that these viruses readily infect multiple different horseshoe bat species with overlapping geographical ranges." Didn't realize they were different species of bats - but, of course, I should, since the naming gives it away. [2021-05-27 19:43:05] [Robert Garry] Figuring out how the viruses expand their host range even further would be key. Of course, that would require making chimeras which the bloomshitters would frown upon. [2021-05-27 19:45:53] [Kristian Andersen]