As mentioned by Drishant, certain mutations have emerged independently in other countries but didn’t gain prominence.
Though, both the ‘B.1.1.7 UK variants & B.1.351 South Africa Variant’ represent unique combinations of mutations / deletions that have rarely been observed before, scientists speculate that the two lineages may have acquired those during a persistent infection in an immunocompromised patient.
Treatment by convalescent serum (or mono- / polyclonal antibody therapies) might have played a role in the acquisition of those mutations (though note that neither of those lineages seems to be an immune-escape strain).
So many man-made ways to promote escape variants, accelerate the evolution
✓promiscuous use of convalescent plasma
✓validated vaccine schedules
✓allow sustained, broad spread
✓don’t protect immuncompromised hosts
https://common.page/covid-19/Virus.Variant
https://common.page/covid-19/Virus.Variants.Origin
We have been working on a new approach to dealing with information and sense-make in the digital world.
Just like a navigation system, we are creating a path to evidence (simplifying your approach to get to the data/evidence). You can see it as Maps of evidence for community use- that are easy to explore, and as natural to read as a normal document.