I am not full sure people appreciate the impact of B117 strain on the course of the pandemic. TL;DR B117 is "a pandemic inside a pandemic" and demands both monitoring and preparation for when it arrives in a location. Vaccination is even more of a priority due to B117.

Context: I am an expert on human genetics and computational biology. I know experts in viral evolution, testing, infectious epidemiology, clinical trials. I have COIs in that I am long established consultant to @nanopore and I am on the Ox/AZ vaccine trial.

B117 clearly transmits faster. This has been clear in a UK context now for over a month, with particularly insightful backtracking of growth of B117 from low levels through October/November; it is true in Denmark; it is true in Ireland.

(Shout out the fast responding science of @CovidGenomicsUK, of the analysis of @jcbarret and @arambaut, of clever genomics-epi models of @MoritzGerstung and @harald_voeh and on it testing / spidey sense of @The_Soup_Dragon)

(In Denmark their excellent genomic surveillance, similar to UK's allows Denmark to know about the growth of B117 from low level in the context of other strains - props to @MadsAlbertsen85 and colleagues; In Ireland it is becoming one of the dominant variants)