Thread by @DrEricDing

BREAKING—Tracing WH #COVID19: WH blocked tracing but 2 journalists donated samples to 🧬epidemiologists. “These mutations [in] these viruses are quite rare in US,” Bedford said. “I am highly convinced that these come from the same outbreak or cluster.” 🧵
nytimes.com/2020/11/01/sci…

2) “The viral genomes of the two journalists shared the same distinct pattern of mutations, the research found. Along with their exposure history, the findings suggest that they were infected as part of the broader White House outbreak, said Trevor Bedford @trvrb.

3) “The genomes believed to be connected to White House outbreak do not identify a recent geographic source, in part because they are unusual (5 mutations). The ancestors of those viruses spread to US from Europe and were circulating widely across the country in April and May”

4) “but the trail goes cold after that, according to Dr. Bedford.

Geneticists said genomes are a key piece of puzzle to determine where WH outbreak originated. Scientists collect and publish tens of thousands of new 🧬sequences every month, and more testing may fill in picture.”

5) Trevor also visible upset says, “With all of the resources of the federal government at the disposal, cases in the White House outbreak could easily have been sequenced and science conducted. However, this sequencing was not performed”

https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1323024490247282690

6) Trevor continues “More generally, we could have had a national program to conduct case-based interventions w/ targeted testing, contact tracing and isolation.” He says it could be “the Apollo program of our times" but “This program never launched & was never really attempted.”

7) BOTTOMLINE: there is a unique signature to the WH outbreak among the 2 WH journalist samples. It’s an “unusual” 5 mutation divergence that traces back to Virginia but also a few places but they can’t pinpoint without further 🧬 testing of more people later on. #COVID19

8) More technical details here.

https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1323011782714159105

9) Why is all this genomic epidemiology important? Several reasons

📌Figure out where the virus came from that infected the WH

📌where else it went to, where else did WH outbreak infect across the US. (how many cases the WH was responsible for)

📌helps know transmission modes

10) Reporters— it might be really interesting to compare @shearm’s and VP pence staffers’ #SARSCoV2 🧬 sequence to this Florida outbreak.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1322770392017154049