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This variant is moving much faster to dominance in South Africa than Delta. About 6x faster. You can make some quibbles (small case numbers etc) but this is qui

• dragontamer 5y ago
  And Lambda took over South America and people were worried it'd also overtake Delta in the USA. Lambda didn't win however. We were right to be concerned but don't panic about it. Lambda clearly had some 'superpowers'
• lamontcg 5y ago
  Small case numbers are not a "quibble". You need high case numbers to establish that a variant outcompetes another variant or else all you potentially have is luck and founder effects.
• biophysboy 5y ago
  Your link is broken, but if you're talking about that FT chart with the title that starts with "A new variant is spreading rapidly..." then I might be able to to put you at ease a bit, without quibbling about "too early to tell". It is a time vs percentage share of cases chart, comparing Beta, Delta and Omicron. Omicron is growing very fast in percentage share relative to Beta and Delta. But Beta and Delta were competing with other variants when they first emerged, whereas Omicron is currently not. So its percent share is growing fast.
  • graeme 5y ago
    Yeah, thanks for expanding on that. It’s a very valid point. On the other hand, Israel, Hong Kong and Belgium have all reported breakthroughs from recent travellers. In Hong Kong it did so between two units in an isolation hotel. So it certainly looks troubling. But yes if there a massive Delta wave in South Africa the relative growth rate would be slower.