BREAKING—Faced w/ new #SARSCoV2 mutation w/ "significantly faster" transmission rates, Boris Johnson tightened #COVID19 restrictions. 🇬🇧 Chief medical officer Chris Whitty said scientists consider this new strain to *move more quickly between people*. 🧵 washingtonpost.com/world/europe/c…
2) “New mutation, or variants, was first detected in southeast England in September and is becoming more prevalent in new cases.”
But there is no evidence at this time to suggest the new strain is more deadly or able to elude vaccines designed to defeat it.
But there is no evidence at this time to suggest the new strain is more deadly or able to elude vaccines designed to defeat it.
3) “We have alerted the World Health Organization and are continuing to analyze the available data to improve our understanding,”
4) “British scientists have been following the spread of the new variant for nearly three months, eventually seeing it in samples taken from more than 1,100 people, most of whom lived in the southeast of England 🏴”
5) “What surprised them was the sudden prevalence of the variant in samples of mucus and salvia taken from patients.
“This lineage came up quite rapidly,” said Nick Loman, a professor of microbial genomics at the University of Birmingham.
“This lineage came up quite rapidly,” said Nick Loman, a professor of microbial genomics at the University of Birmingham.
6) The scientists said thousands of mutations of the cornovirus have been detected in samples taken around the world, and that new lineages arise and then usually disappear.
But Loman also said the number of mutations on this new strain was striking.
But Loman also said the number of mutations on this new strain was striking.
7) The new variant showed 17 mutations, most in a segment of the virus’s genome that encodes for the spike protein, the protruding structure essential to the pathogen’s ability to bind with the receptor cells in a person who gets exposed and then infected.
8) the new mutation with 17 changes was first recognized earlier this week and reported 3 days ago.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1339241107822178305
9) Here was the early warning 5 days ago from UK 🇬🇧 health secretary to UK parliament. Pretty serious if they had to warn parliament.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1338518190599663622
10) Mutations happen all the time, most inert. But the longer we let the pandemic linger in nature, the greater the chance of “unlucky” mutations. Mink example:
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1335419078446551041
11) Most of the time harmless but this one is become to slowly dominate more and more of the total fraction of cases. See pink — it’s been slowly emerging for several months, to now becoming the 2nd most dominate in UK from nothing. 
12) WOW, the variant is so dominant, it is now 43% of all #COVID19 cases in Southeast, 59% in east, and 62% of all cases in London!! From press conference report. amp.theguardian.com/world/live/202…
13) DETAILED UPDATE on the U.K. 🇬🇧 mutation— with detailed discussions added on the mutations.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1340487062903001090
14) Note that the UK 🇬🇧 new variant in #SARSCoV2 is a different strain from the South Africa 🇿🇦 variant... which is also more contagious than the most common type, and possibly more severe... 👇
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1340517608643317761?s=21
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