Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
I see that the new variant was first noticed in September and so I think it's reasonable to assume that the four U.K. Governments have been aware of it for weeks if not months, so they could well have known that there may be something like what was revealed in those minutes on the way, but it was only confirmed on Friday and so I wonder if the delay in announcing new lockdowns, which I was critical of, could be partly down to a sense of "let's wait and see what the research into the variant comes up with before deciding"?