Thanks for those replies everyone, I hope you managed to have a decent Christmas. Some good ideas in all this.
Yeah, I'm still not sure about the motive for this. Probably a distraction technique but then with the NERVTAG team guiding them they probably are worried about a delayed spike in hospital deaths to be blamed for like I think fon was saying. There's so much going on at the moment that could factor into it, Brexit, the vaccines, the fallout from the American election, parliament breaking up for Christmas, the authoritarian French maneuverings, pressure from tory backbenchers building, pressure from people like Farage, pressure from Labour and the media and all those Covid-zero countries to go even further.
I did think it was almost comical how immediately after announcing the new strain being "out of control", Hancock takes to the lectern to talk about a new, new strain from South Africa. It almost seemed like he was trying to shift focus to another country after all the travel bans that he triggered. Like Homer Simpson at the dinner table saying "oh and I gave away our life savings today and, this is the real scandal, Lisa got a B minus today. What happened Lisa?" I suppose these mutations should not be a surprise to anyone at this stage. They will say that the vaccine works against them and encourage uptake as much as possible into the new year. When I post rambling things on here, I suppose what I really what to know or gauge from others is whether we will be able to live a life where we can travel and interact with the world without having to prove we have been vaccinated and if so, how soon? When will they admit that it's "safe" for pubs to open properly without any weird distancing restrictions or masks. And also if those things do happen next year, will there ever be any sort of movement against future lockdowns and big government to stop anything like this ever happening again because I think whether its a cockup or a partially planned response it is an enormous scandal for which people around the world deserve jailtime for.

Sc totally agree.
Funny I have family in south Africa and noone has a clue about the new strain that's so deadly....
🙄

Nothing odd about the timing really, detected in September, sequenced in November, studies and announced when they had data.

1600+ variants in the UK known about so it takes a while to get that done. We only noticed it because we're amongst the best in the world at sequencing both in terms of volume and speed. We don't know where it originated or even who has the most of it because nobody else comes close to the level the UK has at genomic surveillance.

FWIW the Wales variant is slightly different (lacks a deletion) and the SA the same.
The same mutation is cropping up independently in several variants globally hinting it has an advantage.

HOWEVER, we have no idea if its more infectious. Even NervTAG accept that. It as potential theoretical and there are some potential results that MIGHT hint at that but nothing concrete. Something they happily admit in their documents.

Its right to be cautious. The problem is the political establishment ran with that and made it a problem despite the data not yet being conclusive.

Sc totally agree.
Funny I have family in south Africa and noone has a clue about the new strain that's so deadly....
🙄

Thats because its not more deadly. No independent body, politician or outlet has claimed that.

More infectious maybe, more deadly no.

Ok infectious ...........they still say the same as my previous post..