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Proud to have two stories on the homepage today — both, sadly, about the failures of leadership in coping with this pandemic.
The first, with my colleagues @mattapuzzo and @selamgkidan is about how utterly unprepared the world is to cope with the rapidly evolving virus, despite years of warnings from experts https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/world/europe/coronavirus-mutations.html
We charted how, as experts caught on to the emerging variants in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, governments have responded, again and again, with measures that are woefully misguided and inadequate.
Many thanks to all the experts who talked to us but especially to @CT_Bergstrom @jbloom_lab and Andrew Read, who walked me through what we know, and what we should have expected from this virus.
The second story is also disheartening (sorry). Late afternoon yesterday, I spotted reports of a supposed new variant circulating in the US (separate from the one pummeling Britain) that has been circulating for months and is 50% more transmissible.
The report made no sense to any of us. @carlzimmer and I have been chatting with evolutionary biologists all week and *no one* knew anything about this. It turns out that’s because it’s not true. It was mere speculation by Dr. Deborah Birx. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/health/US-variant-covid-false.html
As they have done repeatedly during this pandemic, CDC scientists tried to stop the speculation from getting out, and were overruled. Thank you to my unnamed sources for helping us get the truth out there. (Also big thx to @carlzimmer and @noahweiland who scrambled alongside me)
