Thread by @Ayjchan

For those following the SA variant:
"doubt E484K will render the coronavirus vaccines useless. Rather.. there's a possibility the mutation- on its own or in combination with other mutations- could decrease the efficacy of the vaccine against the variant."
cnn.com/2021/01/12/hea…

Several of my scientist friends have been tirelessly following new mutations arising in the SARS2 virus circulating around the world. They have to continually detect new variants, test them in the lab to see if new mutation combos impact the efficacy of vaccines and antibodies.

This challenge gets worse when spread of covid is larger. @CNN reports it right: "It's not that the coronavirus is such a speedy mutator.. It's that the virus is spreading so quickly around the world, and each time it goes from person to person, it gets another chance to mutate."

Studies like this one by @jbloom_lab are incredibly important for predicting mutations that could get around vaccines.
"The most important site is E484, where neutralization by some sera is reduced >10-fold by several mutations, including (E484K)..."
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Although worldwide, the E484K mutation has only appeared in ~0.2% of all sequenced SARS2 virus genomes, if you look on covidcg.org @CovidCg you can see where it is really picking up recently.

Different view; vertical axis is now new counts of virus sequences with the E484K mutation (previous tweet was % sequences).