this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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Unnatural evolutionary processes of SARS-CoV-2 variants and possibility of deliberate natural selection (zenodo.org)
submitted 1 year ago by fluid_neutral@lemmy.today to c/science@lemmy.world
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As a result, we concluded that the formation of a part of Omicron isolates BA.1, BA.1.1, and BA.2 was not the product of genome evolution, as is commonly observed in nature, such as the accumulation of mutations and homologous recombinations. Furthermore, the study of 35 recombinant isolates of Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2 confirmed that Omicron variants were already present in 2020. The analysis showed that Omicron variants were formed by an entirely new mechanism that cannot be explained by previous biology, and knowing how the SARS-CoV-2 variants were formed prompts a reconsideration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

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[–] SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The results section of the full pdf is an interesting read, though I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. It poses an interesting question and ends on an grim tone (if truly an experiment, it's probably not the last).

I am confused whether I should put my tinfoil hat on or not.

[–] GuyDudeman@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve always maintained that it was a lab-developed virus that accidentally infected a lab worker and then got out in the wild. Now it looks like it may have been a couple of different lab-developed viruses?

But opinions have gone back and forth so much on that theory.

[–] random_character_a@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, less dangerous,more aggressively spreading omicron did replace previous more dangerous variants. Deliberate?

[–] GuyDudeman@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Possibly. Good on China for doing that, if that’s what they did.