🎉Happy New Year!🎉

To kick off 2021, here's an update on:
- S:N501 variants (501Y.V1/V2) with data from 31 Dec 2020
- 69/70del variants
- 20A.EU1 variant (most prevalent variant in Europe)

(Here are some fireworks that look a bit like phylogenies! 🎆)

1/23

The latest sequences from 31 Dec show new sequences in the S:N501Y.V1 variant (originating from SE England) from Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Italy, Canada, the USA, Germany, Switzerland, & India.

2/23

S:N501 link
https://t.co/TfHfPgBEBS

Image link
https://t.co/3aCKv1pAcI
Canada, Germany, & Switzerland all have sequences that fall in 501Y.V1 for the first time, scattered across the tree.

3/23
The USA also has its first 2 sequences that fall in 501Y.V1, from Colorado & California. India also had its first 3 sequences, also from different regions.

In both cases, the sequences are not connected, indicating separate introductions.

4/23
In countries with previous sequences:

6 new sequences from Netherlands, in orange/yellow (green are older).
1 is clearly separate - zooming in (& in divergence view, coloured by country) it is harder to determine the relationship between the others.

5/23
Denmark has 24 new sequences, shown in orange.
2 identical sequence at the top are separate introduction(s?) than the larger cluster below.

The other sequences form a tight cluster very indicative of onward transmission.

6/23
1 new Australian sequence (the large orange dot) is close to an older sequence (large green).

From the phylogeny alone, it's hard to say if these are connected or separate, as the sequences are identical. (Vertical order is not meaningful for identical sequences!)

7/23
Finally, there are 2 new sequences from Italy (orange).

1 (top) seems to be a separate introduction. The other (zoomed view) may be related to an earlier Italian sequence as they're separated by 1 mutation, but we cannot say for sure.

8/23
Now: 69/70del variants. Why do we care about 69/70del? Well, this deletion is found in 501Y.V1, but also in other major variants like S:Y453F & S:N439K.

Read/see more in the 69del section of my 'SARS-CoVariants' tracking page!

9/23

https://t.co/9eKGmBKKe6
In a new Virological post @bblarsen1
& @MichaelWorobey identify a novel 69/70del lineage in the USA:
https://t.co/6qUN3nlYA9

10/23
In the focal S:H69- build, we can see this cluster below.

Importantly, in this build the cluster appears to be close to 501Y.V2, but this is a focal build so this connection must be interpreted cautiously!

11/23

https://t.co/CgWL7o7W4c
We can also see the cluster in our soon-to-go-live-today @nextstrain North American build (subsampled, in grey).

(In the build live at 14.30CET 1 Jan the 'cluster' is only 1 sequence! We'll push the new one later today!)

12/23
Notably we do see 69/70del clusters pop up often (as well as individuals/pairs with the deletion) - here's just a few:

18 sequences from the UK, Denmark, Germany & France.

13/23

https://t.co/ZVJDv67PDL
A small cluster of 4 sequences from England, Germany, Australia.
https://t.co/T8xfvuaCto

A small cluster of 6 sequences from England.
https://t.co/fCUAK6mhXA

14/23
A cluster of 8 sequences from the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.

15/23

https://t.co/5jvtHtygx9
We can also see 69/70del popping up inside of variants other than the recognised 501Y.V1, 453, & 439:

We can see ~10 sequences in 20A.EU2 (S:477) from France with 69/70del. Gaps aren't used in the phylogeny building, so they don't cluster here.

16/23

https://t.co/OOkwr8dlyJ
Interestingly, @richardneher has queried all the 69/70 deletions in SARS-CoV-2 sequences (all across the tree), and they all occur with the same nucleotide pattern, implying this is a good way to get this deletion, for one reason or another.

17/23

https://t.co/kIu3woMnbE
Finally, a brief note on 20A.EU1.

This is the variant that expanded in Spain before spreading across Europe over the summer (you can read more in our preprint below). It is the most prevalent variant in Europe, containing ~64,000 sequences.

18/23

https://t.co/tTgE9I2Mdn
We have no evidence that the mutations in 20A.EU1 (notably S:A222V) make it more transmissible - we think its spread was mostly due to summer travel.

But long after summer travel has ended, it persists (in orange below) - & continues to spread...

19/23

https://t.co/zLZ72luHE2
In the last 2 weeks we've seen the first appearance of sequences in 20A.EU1 in the USA, Thailand, Malaysia, Peru, Finland, Israel, & South Korea - all sampled in autumn.

20/23

https://t.co/hXIPuqrCmt
This is a variant with no evidence of increased transmissibility, during a time when global travel is severely depressed.

20A.EU1's movement across Europe & the world show how effectively & efficiently #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 can spread.

21/23

https://t.co/AiPX50GRew
Our #SARSCoV2 strategies must take this into account: getting cases down in your country won't last if they are being imported from elsewhere.

And it reminds us how vital & informative it is to track the virus via phylogenetics - only possible with good sequencing.

22/23
2020 has often been a stressful, sad, lonely, desperate, scary year.

But it has also been one where we've seen what science can accomplish when resources are made available & scientists work together.

With all we leave behind in 2020, let's carry that into 2021!

23/23

More from Dr Emma Hodcroft

Lots of tweets about this today!
Let's see what we can see in the focal S:E484 build!

Phylogenetics (what I do - making 'family trees' from virus genetics) can be very informative to see how different variants are spreading, and how cases

There are two variants circulating predominantly in Brazil:
- 20B/S.484K seems to be older & more widespread. It has (among others) a mutation at position 484
- 20J/501Y.V3 is smaller & detected recently. It has mutations at 501 *and* 484.

2/10

https://t.co/Cw5u2kuATa


The variant predominantly in the UK (501Y.V1 / B.1.1.7) and the variant predominantly in South Africa (501Y.V2) also both have 501. 501Y.V2 *also* has the 484K mutation.

Why are there concerns about these mutations? You can read more at https://t.co/wVE7ubYBoy!

3/10


The view below is from an analysis focusing on sequences with a mutation at 484. It shows all the samples in the 2 variants (20B/S.484K & 20J/501Y.V3) & how they're related. More closely related = closer together (very, very roughly).

4/10


We can colour these samples by region to see where they're from. As we expect - most are in Brazil! A few are in Argentina (also red).

5/10

https://t.co/Cw5u2kuATa

More from Society

Like most movements, I have learned that the definition of feminism has expanded to include simply treating women like human beings.

(A thread for whoever feels like reading)


I have observed feminists on Twitter advocating for rape victims to be heard, rapists to be held accountable, for people to address the misogyny that is deeply rooted in our culture, and for women to be treated with respect.

To me, very easy things to get behind.

And the amount of pushback they receive for those very basic requests is appalling. I see men trip over themselves to defend rape and rapists and misogyny every chance they get. Some accounts are completely dedicated to harassing women on this site. It’s unhealthy.

Furthermore, I have observed how dedicated these misogynists are by how they treat other men that do not immediately side with them. There is an entire lexicon they have created for men who do not openly treat women with disrespect.

Ex: simp, cuck, white knight, beta

All examples of terms they use to demean a man who respects women.

To paraphrase what a wise man on this app said:

Some men hate women so much, they hate men who don’t hate women

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Trump is gonna let the Mueller investigation end all on it's own. It's obvious. All the hysteria of the past 2 weeks about his supposed impending firing of Mueller was a distraction. He was never going to fire Mueller and he's not going to


Mueller's officially end his investigation all on his own and he's gonna say he found no evidence of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election.

Democrats & DNC Media are going to LITERALLY have nothing coherent to say in response to that.

Mueller's team was 100% partisan.

That's why it's brilliant. NOBODY will be able to claim this team of partisan Democrats didn't go the EXTRA 20 MILES looking for ANY evidence they could find of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election

They looked high.

They looked low.

They looked underneath every rock, behind every tree, into every bush.

And they found...NOTHING.

Those saying Mueller will file obstruction charges against Trump: laughable.

What documents did Trump tell the Mueller team it couldn't have? What witnesses were withheld and never interviewed?

THERE WEREN'T ANY.

Mueller got full 100% cooperation as the record will show.