Back in May, I was one of many that had a public conservative approach to assessing a variant... that may have seeded with lineages of our reference strain in many locations, was difficult to resolve its origins and distribution earlier in tree. Drift vs adaptation. /1

Here, we have a variant quickly moving towards fixation in direct competition with endemic lineages in broad community transmission. That's a legit, whoa (scientific jargon, sorry). /2

So:
1) Does variant exist: yes
2) Rising in frequency: yup
3) Fitness advantage: replacing others, phylogenomic data very strong, always can use more
4) Mechanism of adaptation: preliminary data on ACE2 binding, tbd
5) Changes everything, panic: no. mask, distance, avoid 3Cs
/3

Again, I probably over-engaged with point 5 by being *mad online*, and I thank those who did the smart work of promoting discussion of 1-4. Did my best to signal boost some great Tweets on that.
/fin