Thread by @Ayjchan

Some scientists expected this day would come but somehow it's still annoying that it's gotten to a stage where some individuals are infected by 2 or more separate people/events, sometimes resulting in recombination between different SARS2 variants.
newscientist.com/article/226801…

On this topic, one major challenge is getting these new data (raw or assembled genomes) onto public databases ASAP.

I think there's some competition happening among the top databases. This has to stop for the duration of the pandemic. Priority is getting data public ASAP.

It can't be a situation where scientists and developers of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics are learning about new variants from @TheScientistLLC @CNN etc.

Scientists need to have access to these data ASAP so we can optimize all the tools we have to fight this pandemic.

Maybe there needs to be a prize money system where scientists get $1000 for each new variant sequenced in their lab and immediately deposited onto all of the top public databases.

We've been through these cycles before. One lab reports a new strain, media goes nuts over it, is it more transmissible/deadly??, we wait a couple weeks for data to be finally uploaded so other scientists can get to work testing the new variant... we need a new system.

For non-scientists, this situation of scientists finding out about emerging variants of concern from the news, is like a person only finding out on facebook that their family was infected with SARS2 =____= not from a doctor or even the family member themselves. From social media.