If that were true, we'd be seeing the mutation in sequencings. We all know India is doing pretty badly on that front, but it's also a huge huge population. It's

If that were true, we'd be seeing the mutation in sequencings. We all know India is doing pretty badly on that front, but it's also a huge huge population. It's rampant enough that it seems to me they'd have found at least some samples of what you're saying. As it is, B1.617 seems to be the most common there (though it seems hard to find absolute numbers a la [1]), not your friend's speculative mystery strain. Whether they are a doctor..; since what I heard from other doctors near the beginning of the pandemic, it seems they're no better equipped to deal with this than the rest of us and will speculate unscientifically just as much, except people parrot it more. [1] Table with sequencing results for the Netherlands. If someone knows where to find this for other counties, I'd be very interested! https://www.rivm.nl/coronavirus-covid-19/virus/varianten https://www.rivm.nl/coronavirus-covid-19/virus/varianten Bonus link: latest WHO update contains some info about variants (unfortunately not much, e.g. just saying a country has had a case of <insert variant> without any info on its prevalence there): https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---27-april-2021 https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiologic...