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Eric Topol Profile picture
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21 Dec, 4 tweets, 4 min read
The B.1.1.7 variant has 23 mutations
I spoke to Andrew Ward (@WardLab1) @ScrippsResearch today (podcast coming) about its structural biology. He thinks the N501Y (in common w/ South Africa variant) is the driver for increased transmission; he's not concerned re: vaccine efficacy
On @CNN @wolfblitzer, @NYGovCuomo just said the new variant transmits 70-fold the D614G and that it accounted for Europe’s 2nd wave. Both are wrong!
While the B.1.1.7 variant is thought to have been derived from accelerated evolution in an immunocompromised patient with covid (see examples in these 2 @NEJM reports), if the functional culprit is indeed N501Y, that might turn out to be a red herring
Schematic of the B.1.1.7 variant and FAQs @NYTScience
nytimes.com/2020/12/21/hea… by @carlzimmer @13pt w/ @K_G_Andersen

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More from @EricTopol

Eric Topol Profile picture
23 Dec
1. Structural biology has been a standout in the pandemic, mapping the virus, antibodies and vaccines atom by atom. So I had a conversation with one of its leaders, Andrew Ward @WardLab1, my @scrippsresearch colleague soundcloud.com/prescrippsions…
2. Back in 2016, Andrew and his colleagues were the first to see and publish the coronavirus spike protein, via cryo-electron microscopy (a common cold virus, HKU1) nature.com/articles/natur… @nature
Note the team, which proved to be formidable
@McLellan_Lab @KizzyPhD Barney Graham ImageImage
3. In the podcast, Andrew reviews how they came together. A next act was the famous 2P (2 proline substitutions) paper that was rejected 5 times before being published @PNASNews
Subthread about that here:
Read 13 tweets
Eric Topol Profile picture
18 Dec
1. There are limited data about the vaccines for people who have had covid. But we can learn from the @Pfizer @BioNTech and @moderna trials which had 3% and 2.2% participants respectively confirmed at baseline (via FDA briefing docs)
2. In the Pfizer trial there were 9 reinfections among 670 participants (1.3%) who received placebo which was the same rate as those without prior infection (259 of 19,818 participants, 1.3%).
Only 1 reinfection in the vaccine group (after ≥ 7 days) for those w/ prior infection
3. We need to learn more about this with so many people with prior infections getting vaccinated. But this finding suggests vaccine-induced immune response may add protection to the natural response and adds another layer to the superhuman concept 👇
Read 4 tweets
Eric Topol Profile picture
18 Dec
How do you get to over 240,000 covid cases in one day?
Ask the USA.
An unabated virus.
A rudderless country.
Today @COVID19Tracking
With more than 114,000 Americans hospitalized
Our status in San Diego and LA.
Hope yours is better
Read 4 tweets
Eric Topol Profile picture
17 Dec
You have one guess for what is @ScienceMagazine's Breakthrough of the Year, 2020 😉
The new issue is full of insightful, useful content on the pandemic
This "Year like No Other" timeline is the best I've seen so far
@ScienceVisuals
science.sciencemag.org/content/370/65…
science.sciencemag.org/content/370/65…
Vaccines. The hope. @sciencecohen reviews the vaccine landscape, the 95% efficacy in context, and gets personal about his mother
Read 5 tweets
Eric Topol Profile picture
14 Dec
1 down, 200+ million to go
Why 200+ million (not 300), and how we could get there faster
The functionality of the health system CEO in this photo is striking 😉
Read 4 tweets
Eric Topol Profile picture
13 Dec
Why 2 proline (P) substitutions will go down in history.
Introducing 2P's at the beginning of the central helix (CH) stabilized the spike protein's confirmation upon entering cells.
From the Jan 10 #SARSCoV2 sequence, this 2P Δ was incorporated into the mRNA vaccine designs /1
This was a result of elegant #3D structural biology work @NIH (Barney Graham), @scrippsresearch (Andrew Ward) and collaborators from a @PNASNews paper that was rejected 5 times! pnas.org/content/114/35… /2
Without the 2P design, the mRNA vaccines would have failed.
The remarkable story is told well by @Carolynyjohnson
washingtonpost.com/health/2020/12… /3
Read 7 tweets

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