Question about COVID variants

[sekker]

Sarcany wrote:
It would be remarkably rare for a new variant to spontaneously appear with the same exact mutations in the same places as one of the previously identified variants, but it's within the realm of possibility. (On the order of falling out of an airplane and surviving twice I'd imagine.)

For a single nucleotide change that results in hyperactivity, it's possible that there could be separate selection for a specific mutation.

But these more recent variants have over 10 changes; no way those are separate events.