[lbeltrame]

N501Y itself has already appeared around the world. By itself, it does look that it is not more transmissible (see Prof. Francois Balloux's Twitter for some explanations). The deletion, again by itself is not new, and also in this case it doesn't seem it has (on its own) increased fitness over the others.

N50Y has also a similar antibody neutralization profile as the non-mutated version.

Of course, these data refer to the mutations on their own, not together.

More on the deletion (on its own, again): while it is supposedly tied to a faster entry into the cells (twice as efficient in experimental assays), it look like it has lower fitness in absence of an ongoing immune response (it would lower in presence - but not disappear - in the immunocompromised patient it was first found into between treatments with convalescent serum).