Genetic Engineering Hypotheses of SARS-CoV-2 Origins

From essentially the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, some scientists have pointed to evidence that SARS-CoV-2 came about through gain-of-function research. One of the first published papers on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 pointed out reasons to suspect the use of serial passage through an animal host or cell culture was likely.¹⁾

Early during the pandemic, scientists compared the SARS-CoV-2 genome to CoVs native to several species. SARS-CoV-2 was most similar per nucleotide to bat CoVs, but more similar in codon bias to snakes. Simiarity to CoVs from all observed species largely disappeared in the spike protein portion of the genome, which is suggestive of a radical divergence from nature.²⁾ Karl and Dan Sirotkin published a paper critiquing gain-of-function research and exploring molecular and genetic evidence pointing toward likely lab origins.³⁾

A group of scientists tried and failed to recreate the furin cleavage site through infection.⁴⁾

• Preprint: Bruttel, Washburne, and VanDongen

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.18.512756v1.full

Moderna holds patents on thousands of genetic sequences under various contexts. There is specific debate over some key sequences.

On February 21, 2022, scientists published a paper showing a 19 nucleotide portion of the SARS-CoV-2 genome encompassing the furin cleavage site that is a perfect “complementary match to a codon-optimized propriety sequence that is the reverse complement of the human mutS homolog (MSH3).” The paper goes on to say that recombination in an intermedia host (zoonosis) is unlikely.⁵⁾

“A peculiar feature of the nucleotide sequence encoding the PRRA furin cleavage site in the SARS-CoV-2 S protein is its two consecutive CGG codons. This arginine codon is rare in coronaviruses: relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) of CGG in pangolin CoV is 0, in bat CoV 0.08, in SARS-CoV 0.19, in MERS-CoV 0.25, and in SARS-CoV-2 0.299 (9).

A BLAST search for the 12-nucleotide insertion led us to a 100% reverse match in a proprietary sequence (SEQ ID11652, nt 2751-2733) found in the US patent 9,587,003 filed on Feb. 4, 2016 (10) (Figure 1). Examination of SEQ ID11652 revealed that the match extends beyond the 12-nucleotide insertion to a 19-nucleotide sequence: 5′-CTACGTGCCCGCCGAGGAG-3′ (nt 2733-2751 of SEQ ID11652), such that the resulting mRNA would have 3′- GAUGCACGGGCGGCUCCUC-5′, or equivalently 5′- CU CCU CGG CGG GCA CGU AG-3′ (nucleotides 23547-23565 in the SARS-CoV-2 genome, in which the four bold codons yield PRRA, amino acids 681–684 of its spike protein). This is very rare in the NCBI BLAST database.”

A long and detailed article published in State of the Nation lays out a case that COVID-19 was the result of a biological attack on China by the U.S.⁶⁾

Research report finding toxin-like peptides similar to those in animal venom (conotoxins, phospholipsases, phosphodiesterases, zinc metal proteinases, and bradykinins) were found in fecal samples from COVID-19 patients, but not in control patients.⁷⁾