Coronavirus: B.1.1.529 : omicron: Scientists warn of new Covid variant with high number of mutations | Coronavirus | The Guardian

THREAD on the new variant B.1.1.529 summarising what is known from the excellent South African Ministry of Health meeting earlier today

TLDR: So much uncertain but what *is* known is extremely worrying & (in my opinion) we should revise red list immediately.

This is why: 1/16

— Prof. Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) November 25, 2021

Breaking: ECDC has designated B.1.1.529 today as a #VOC pic.twitter.com/WyLnc9xUoJ

— Harry Spoelstra (@HarrySpoelstra) November 26, 2021

This is awful and badly managed disruption but NL tests at airport found about 1 in 6 people +ve. In England people allowed just to go home and test later. Ours is the riskier approach by farm https://t.co/o0wPqtukPK

— Prof. Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) November 27, 2021

There have been a number of overview threads on the emerging variant designated as @PangoNetwork lineage B.1.1.529, @nextstrain clade 21K and @WHO Variant of Concern Omicron. I'm not going to attempt to be comprehensive here, but will highlight a few aspects of the data. 1/16

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) November 26, 2021

61 people on a flight of 600to the Netherlands tested positive for COVID-19 on screening flights from SA – variant status now being assessed. Not imposing mandatory quarantine from all regions including SA is a huge failure of UK policy. This variant is very likely widespread.

— Deepti Gurdasani (@dgurdasani1) November 27, 2021

I think this is bad messaging by senior UK scientists – so far everything about this variant looks bad. We can hope it's not, but we should preparing not encouraging complacency.

You can be honest about its negative potential & still encourage vaccination and safer behaviours. pic.twitter.com/UnU7DtDim0

— Prof. Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) November 27, 2021