Thread by @Mike_Honey_

Here's the latest variant picture for the United States, to early May.

The LP.8.1.* variant continued to fall, down to 35%.

The next challenger is XFG.*, which grew strongly to 19%.

#COVID19 #USA #LP_8_1 #XFG #NB_1_8_1 #Nimbus
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For the US, the XFG.* variant shows a strong and accelerating growth advantage of 6.4% per day (45% per week) over LP.8.1.*, which now predicts a crossover in late-May (the data routinely lags).
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XFG.* had mainly been reported from New York state, rising to 27% frequency. It has also been very common among the International Traveller samples. It rose in Vermont to 20%.
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For the US, the NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" variant shows a faster growth advantage of 7.4% per day (34% per week) over LP.8.1.*, which now predicts a crossover in late-May (the data routinely lags).
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NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" has mainly been reported among the International Traveller samples, at around 20-40% frequency.

It has also been reported up to 50% in Rhode Island and Arizona.
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As International Travellers are not significantly over-represented, I think of them as an alternative slice of the US community – skewed towards business people and the wealthy.
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Report link:

🧵 endsmike-honey.github.io/covid-19-genom…