In response to “What does 71% higher growth rate mean?”, I made a comment in this thread going through the calculations in more detail.
TL;DR: it appears “up to 70% more infectious” is based on observed data, so that if you previously observed an Rt of 0.8, you should expect to observe a new Rt of somewhere between 1.0 and 1.4 with the new strain, ceteris paribus.
Edit: Not sure what is the etiquette around cross-posting comments, mods feel free to delete this duplicated comment if necessary.
In response to “What does 71% higher growth rate mean?”, I made a comment in this thread going through the calculations in more detail.
TL;DR: it appears “up to 70% more infectious” is based on observed data, so that if you previously observed an Rt of 0.8, you should expect to observe a new Rt of somewhere between 1.0 and 1.4 with the new strain, ceteris paribus.
Edit: Not sure what is the etiquette around cross-posting comments, mods feel free to delete this duplicated comment if necessary.