Omicron variant may have picked up a piece of common-cold virus

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Omicron variant may have picked up a piece of common-cold virus

By Nancy Lapid at Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-variant-may-have-picked-up-piece-common-cold-virus-2021-12-03/

"SNIP.......

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 likely acquired at least one of its mutations by picking up a snippet of genetic material from another virus - possibly one that causes the common cold - present in the same infected cells, according to researchers.

This genetic sequence does not appear in any earlier versions of the coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, but is ubiquitous in many other viruses including those that cause the common cold, and also in the human genome, researchers said.

By inserting this particular snippet into itself, Omicron might be making itself look "more human," which would help it evade attack by the human immune system, said Venky Soundararajan of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based data analytics firm nference, who led the study posted on Thursday on the website OSF Preprints.

This could mean the virus transmits more easily, while only causing mild or asymptomatic disease. Scientists do not yet know whether Omicron is more infectious than other variants, whether it causes more severe disease or whether it will overtake Delta as the most prevalent variant. It may take several weeks to get answers to these questions.

......SNIP"

[Klaralven]

1. More likely from HIV

The same genetic sequence appears many times in one of the coronaviruses that causes colds in people - known as HCoV-229E - and in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, Soundararajan said.

South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, has the world's highest rate of HIV, which weakens the immune system and increases a person's vulnerability to infections with common-cold viruses and other pathogens. In that part of the world, there are many people in whom the recombination that added this ubiquitous set of genes to Omicron might have occurred, Soundararajan said.

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4. Double yikes!

[tulipsandroses]

2. Making itself look more human. Good grief!

Sigh, curses to the dumbasses who would rather smear themselves with mud and take horse de wormer pills instead of just getting the damn vaccine.

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3. Or pull out of the World Health Organization in the 1st or 2nd

Wave of a novel virus pandemic. Don't forget that.

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5. Yikes!

[Silent3]

6. It's just a simple virus, yet it can pull off a trick Trump could never manage n/t