I just want to confirm the quality of this source, as someone who is not actually a biologist but who has been following the scene carefully since the beginning

I just want to confirm the quality of this source, as someone who is not actually a biologist but who has been following the scene carefully since the beginning. Dr Hodcroft is in the top tier of science communicators. This "new strain" story is basically tailor made for misinformation and poor information, as it has such a strong hook. The tl;dr as I understand it is that there may be something there, but it is too early to tell for sure.