On this Christmas Eve, I would like to spare a thought for the many scientists, researchers, & lab technicians & assistants who have been 'called up' thanks to the new #SARSCoV2 variants.
It's been a tough year & many of us had hoped this week might be a well-earned break.
1/6
Academia/science is rarely a 9-5 job, & we're a bit famous for our tendency to overwork, but it's a rare year when evolutionary biology & phylogenetics are so urgently needed that we can't slip away for a few quiet days over Christmas!
2/6
(see alt text for the ornament shop!)
I imagine many, like myself, are humbled & proud that we can contribute to the efforts against #COVID19#SARSCoV2.
But it's been an incredibly long, hard year for many of us, compounded by the same restrictions, loss, & loneliness that so many have felt.
3/6
So I'm sending out strength & peace today to all my science-y colleagues who will have 1 ear on the inbox, 1 hand on the keyboard, & half a brain on the latest news this week, rather than the full 'unplugging' we might have hoped for this time of year.
4/6
As I am for the millions of essential workers & healthcare workers, who work through Christmas *every* year but will no doubt be feeling extra strain after a year of carrying so much of the load of 2020 & the sadness & desperation it has brought so many.
5/6
Be kind to yourself the next few days. Take time to enjoy a glass of something warm (or something strong!). Unplug as much as you can. Zoom with family and friends. Laugh. Spend a quiet evening enjoying beautiful lights.
Stay warm. Stay healthy. Stay strong.
🧣🎁🎄❄️
6/6
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Zooming in on this further, and switching to divergence view (showing mutations rather than time), we can see they share 1 unique mutation & then have 1 unique mutation each, suggesting 1 introduction, possibly from the UK, & onward transmission.
We can take a similar look at the Danish sequences. They too, share one unique mutation, & some further unique mutations, suggesting a single introduction & onward transmission.
We can see this because the 3 variants (UK=1, Wales=2, SA=3) are not next to or inside each other in the tree below. In fact, we need to trace back to before March to find their common ancestors:
The number of people with the new variant in continental Europe is likely still small: with testing, tracing, identification & restrictions, we might be able to prevent them from passing the virus on. That's easier with 10 people than 1000.
2/10
However, border closures make the most sense when coupled with fast action *inside* countries as well.
Even a few cases can become a few thousand quickly, if there's nothing to stop them. So as well as border controls, countries need to be stepping up measures within.
From the plot of variants frequency in sequences, per country, we can see that the 501Y variant (pink) is expanding in the UK (the last data point represents incomplete data & will likely change in future).
S:H69- is of particular interest, as it's part of a double-deletion (also position 70) that's appeared at least 3 times independently in conjunction with receptor binding domain (RBD) mutations: N501Y, N439K, & Y453F.
Below, the yellow is N439K, the orange is Y453F associated with Denmark (we see Y453F mutation multiple times) & the red is N501Y (again, we see N501Y mutation multiple times). Each of these RBD mutations also exists without the 69/70 deletion.