Is Omicron a Product of Natural Evolution Of SARS-CoV-2?
The prevailing view seems to be that Omicron evolved due to selection pressure from mass vaccination; hence the many 'mutations' in the spike region which enable it to potentially evade the vaccine immune response, even more effectively than Delta.
But what if it has evolved naturally? This is an intriguing possibility pointed out by Robert Malone in response to a research paper recently published, which I feel should be treated with caution but it is at least a very plausible explanation for present observations regarding Omicron, i.e. its very high infectiousness and relatively mild clinical presentation.
Robert says:
Based on current reports, Omicron appears to be associated with three broad characteristics: Vaccine escape (resistance), increased viral replication and reduced disease.
You might think that because the virus is replicating even faster than Delta, and thus associated with high viral loads, it might cause enhanced clinical disease. In delta, the high viral loads combined with lack of symptoms in the jabbed were put down to the 'fact' that being jabbed prevents serious symptoms. But that's very unlikely to be the case with Omicron. 'So what's going on?' asks Robert.
What is going on? How can increased levels of Omicron virus replication be associated with reduced disease? How did so many mutations in the receptor binding domain of Omicron arise, apparently spontaneously? Why do the evolutionary tree plots show that Omicron represents a separate branch from currently circulating viruses? How could so many mutations which confer vaccine resistance suddenly appear? Botswana (and South Africa in general) does not have a very high vaccination rate, so why would a vaccine-resistant virus strain develop in this region. Did someone engineer and release yet another virus? Lots and lots of questions. Very few answers. And then this new press release from the University of Hong Kong arrived today, showing that Omicron replicates more highly in conducting airway cells (bronchus), and less in lung cells. I think that the paper above provides with some important clues that could help us make sense out of this puzzle.
Robert explains in rather technical language what happens when a virus 'mutates', both due to selective pressure (from vaccines) and due to natural evolutionary pressures created by the innate and adaptive immune response in unvaccinated individuals, of which there are many in Botswana and South Africa, where Omicron was originally discovered (although, a note of caution here, it was found in foreign travellers who were double-jabbed).
The question is not whether viral mutations occur with or without vaccination, but rather what natural selection pressures are present to select which viruses survive, infect other cells, and make more copies of themselves. If you have not been vaccinated or infected before, there are a variety of ways that our body, innate immune system (natural antibodies and natural killer cells) and adaptive immunity “select” which viruses do or do not survive to replicate and infect others. This process of repeated selection and replication of the viral particles which are most able to survive in your body causes the genetic characteristics of the “swarm” of viruses infecting you to gradually change – genetically speaking. This is called natural selection of the fittest, and this process happens for everything that uses DNA or RNA to carry information from one generation to the next. This is the process that creates the gradual changes which we call “evolution”.
Vaccination with the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 creates a “selection” force on any swarm of viruses that infect a new host. So does the immunity created by “natural immunity” – the adaptive and innate immune responses that your body is left with after it has been infected and recovered from that infection. Basically, anything that creates an obstacle to the virus infecting a host, replicating, and jumping to another host will drive the virus to evolve to evade that obstacle.
So, basically, yes, Omicron could have evolved in response to idiotic, dangerous and ill-conceived mass vaccination campaigns (a theory promoted by Geert Vanden Bossche) or it might just have evolved in response to natural selection pressures in a region of the world where a minority only have been jabbed (Africa).
What we know about Omicron is that it has many new mutations in the RBD. These mutations are absolutely associated with increased resistance to the effects of vaccine-induced antibodies. But was the development of this cluster of new mutations driven by natural selection due to vaccination? In an area of the world that does not have a very high vaccination rate? That does not make sense.
What if Omicron is the consequence of evolutionary pressure to replicate and infect more efficiently, perhaps to compete with Delta? Or as a consequence of passing between human and animal (cat, ungulate) hosts? What if what has really happened is that Omicron has evolved to change the location where it replicates in our body? What if it has evolved to replicate more in our upper respiratory airway, and less in the deep part of our lung tissues?
It's an intriguing possibility which consigns Omicron basically to the status of a highly infectious common cold which generally only affects the upper respiratory tract.
Robert makes an interesting observation re. human thought processes:
We often seem to fall into simple, binary thinking when considering complicated problems. Left or right-wing politics. Vaccinated or unvaccinated selecting for newly evolved viruses. This can limit our ability to make sense out of the world. But what if what is going on with Omicron is not so much driven by antibodies directed against the Spike RBD, but by selection for shifting the region of the respiratory tract that it infects? Or perhaps, this variant has bounced back and forth between humans and other species, and in so doing it has accumulated mutations which have exploited subtle differences in the ACE2 receptor.
He may be right. We may all have been blind-sided by this sneaky little virus. My mind is still open to all possibilities. We need more data. That's how science works. We certainly don't need more fascist 'vaccine' mandates. That's how Nazism/communism works.
Robert finishes on a positive note. Perhaps we are witnessing a Christmas miracle, the birth of a 'natural vaccine' in the form of Omicron which will finally end the suspect 'Covid pandemic', even though it might not end the horrifying pandemic of Covid fascism which is sweeping the globe.
Perhaps what we are seeing with Omicron is the genetic consequence of one of these evolutionary bursts.
This is why this new finding from a team at Hong Kong University is so significant. Because it indicates that what may be most important about Omicron may not be the ability to evade vaccine-induced immunity, but that it has shifted its preferred tissue target for infection and replication to the upper airway instead of deep lung. That could explain why it is more infectious, replicates to higher levels, and yet causes less severe disease.
Let’s hope that is our best gift this Christmas.
God works in mysterious ways, so they say. Perhaps he sent his Son back to earth this Christmas in the form of Omicron? That would indeed be very strange and mysterious. One thing's for sure. The human race desperately needs a respite from the relentless evil forces which are operating globally right now.
A very Merry Christmas to all.