West Coast Variant and Other Fun Stuff Archived
Hi,
Thanks so much to all who participated in yesterday's call. We apologize to Duncan MacCannell (and everyone else) for the technical difficulties with his sound, but we'll get that worked out and have him back soon (2/19/21). We still enjoyed a lively exchange, made great progress on the aggregate document and we'll be trying to figure out it's new home with CDC.
In variant news, I incorrectly referred to the identification of a new variant as the California Variant, it should be referred to as the West Coast Variant. While all of California is the west coast, not all of the west coast is California. Just like while all of the B.1.1.7 variants have an S-drop, not all S-drops are B.1.1.7 variants.
Some more that I now understand about the West Coast Variant. They are tracking the B.1.429 and B.1.427 lineages on the West Coast for sure. It was first detected in CA last summer, another one in September, and then they started seeing an increase in detections that really took off in December. It is quite possible that increase is related to a concurrent dramatic increase in sequencing some focused testing around specific clusters of illness. While it is certainly in play, it's presence may be over-stated. And it is definitely too early to speak to things like transmissibility, re-infections and vaccine efficacy around this variant.
See the fun things we talk about on our calls. Be sure to come on back!
Jim
Thanks so much to all who participated in yesterday's call. We apologize to Duncan MacCannell (and everyone else) for the technical difficulties with his sound, but we'll get that worked out and have him back soon (2/19/21). We still enjoyed a lively exchange, made great progress on the aggregate document and we'll be trying to figure out it's new home with CDC.
In variant news, I incorrectly referred to the identification of a new variant as the California Variant, it should be referred to as the West Coast Variant. While all of California is the west coast, not all of the west coast is California. Just like while all of the B.1.1.7 variants have an S-drop, not all S-drops are B.1.1.7 variants.
Some more that I now understand about the West Coast Variant. They are tracking the B.1.429 and B.1.427 lineages on the West Coast for sure. It was first detected in CA last summer, another one in September, and then they started seeing an increase in detections that really took off in December. It is quite possible that increase is related to a concurrent dramatic increase in sequencing some focused testing around specific clusters of illness. While it is certainly in play, it's presence may be over-stated. And it is definitely too early to speak to things like transmissibility, re-infections and vaccine efficacy around this variant.
See the fun things we talk about on our calls. Be sure to come on back!
Jim
Will there be notes? Very sorry I had to drop off! Especially interested in any discussion around the variants and how to do surveillance for them.
Our plan is to re-visit the variant discussion with Duncan's voice on our next call.
Jim
I was lucky enough to be on long enough to see Bryant’s beard.