Thread by @DrEricDing

⚠️My god—the new #B11259 variant being possibly ~500% more competitively infectious is the most staggering stat yet. Also, #NuVariant has more than >2x the number of bad spike mutations than Delta. Here’s an updated 🧵👇

Model by @JPWeiland matches up with graph by @jburnmurdoch

2) That spike in #B11259 displacing Delta has now caused shockwaves worldwide. It is really bad. Not only that but the previous #C12 variant also seems to be slowly growing and displacing Delta too in South Africa.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1463925612402429952

3) the new #B11259 variant has an “extremely high” 32 worrisome mutations in the spike. That is a “real concern” and much much much more worrisome than any others found to date. 👇

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1463765169830572039

4) Notably, it’s the first time that a variant has *2* furin cleavage site mutations. “variant contains not one, but two furin cleavage site mutations - P681H & N679K- this is the first time @PeacockFlu seen 2 of these mutations in a single variant.”

📌Furin site spells trouble.

5) For fhe #DeltaVariant—one of its most dangerous mutations was in the furin cleavage site P681H.

Guess which variant also has another nasty mutation at the same 681 amino acid spot?➡️ The new Botswana #B11529 variant. nature.com/articles/d4158…

6) Now #B11529 is taking over the GP region, where “almost all recent samples” are now #B11529 — the blue dots 🔵 … 👀

7) But is now surging everywhere in SA— a shortcut PCR test for #B11529 shows it suddenly appear across **all provinces** of South Africa!!! That’s a bad bad sign.

8) It has leaked out of Africa now too—but fortunately caught by 🇭🇰’s quarantine system for international arrivals. But that’s where the good news ends— #B11259 was barely caught by a 4th PCR test in cross infection across a hotel hallway. Worse—both were Pfizer vaccinated. See👇

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1463998740340121601

9) I’ll be sending more updates and alerts in the coming days and weeks. If you have found my thread 🧵 helpful… then subscribe below. Thank you.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1464138370368561200?s=21

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1464138370368561200

10) Update—new name for B11529 — #OmicronVarariant.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1464295166639022092

11) Quadrupling of cases in just 6 days is a very bad sign. This same province also saw ~75% #B11529 - well outpacing #Delta.