Pekosz says the mutations suggest a non evolutionary process. A non evolutionary process is something that doesn't occur in the wild.
"Perhaps someone immune-compromised was infected, and active replication of the virus was maintained for a very long time."
That's NOT a quote from Pekosz. That's a quote from one of the unnamed sources. You know the unnamed sources that you criticized for being unnamed. Now you are using the unnamed source to attempt to make your argument. And you neglected to mention that the source also described the more probable lab scenario.
And that paper acknowledges the most popular hypothesis is the one mentioned above - that Omicron developed in an immuno-compromised person. They then go on to speculate about it having arisen in mice, and in fact speculate that mice have long been an alternate host for SARS CoV-2. Their thesis is the mutations happened in mice in the wild and they say absolutely nothing about lab development.
Where in their paper does it say that the mice mutations happened in the "wild"?? It doesn't. And it doesn't describe it as the most "popular" scenario either.
As Attkisson goes on cite...
Seems like it's common knowledge that mice don't naturally catch and transmit COVID. They have to be humanized in a lab. Never mind that mice are the animals typically used in lab experiments.
No so. In fact, an unusual scenario where a virus is free to continue to replicate without an immune reaction eliminates the selection element of evolution and is exactly a non-evolutionary process.
That's NOT a quote from Pekosz...Now you are using the unnamed source to attempt to make your argument...
I never meant to imply Pekosz was the source of that quote. Sorry if it wasn't clear.
And it isn't my argument, it's the one I've been hearing from others since Omicron occurred. I included it because it was in the article and to make it clear it wasn't just something I had made up.
Where in their paper does it say that the mice mutations happened in the "wild"?
"We found that the molecular spectrum of pre-outbreak Omicron mutations was inconsistent with the rapid accumulation of mutations in humans but rather suggested a trajectory in which the progenitor of Omicron experienced a reverse zoonotic event from humans to mice sometime during the pandemic (most likely in mid-2020) and accumulated mutations in a mouse host for more than one year before jumping back to humans in late-2021..."
They posit that the virus jumped to mice and back to humans more than a year later. Nothing about anything being engineered in nor escaping from a lab.
Not sure? Here's more context:
"The molecular docking-based predictions showed that the adaptation of Omicron to mice also promoted its adaptation to other species, such as humans, camels, and goats, via stronger RBD-ACE2 interaction (Fig. 6). Such a ‘pleiotropic effect’ of mutations was likely caused by structural similarity of ACE2 across species, and indicates that once a SARS-CoV-2 variant acquires the capacity to infect a new host, it can accumulate mutations in this new animal reservoir and becomes transmittable to another host. This ‘chain reaction’ of host jumping could potentially lead to remarkably high diversity in the adaptation to ACE2 from various host species....Humans represent the largest known reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, and frequently come in contact with other animals, including livestock animals, pets, or wild animals that invade homes searching for food and shelter. Given the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to jump across various species, it appears likely that global populations will face additional animal-derived variants until the pandemic is well under control."
They're clearly talking about transmission in the wild.
And it doesn't describe it as the most "popular" scenario either.
"The first hypothesis is that Omicron could have ‘cryptically spread’ and circulated in a population with insufficient viral surveillance and sequencing. Second, Omicron could have evolved in a chronically infected COVID-19 patient, such as an immunocompromised individual who provided a suitable host environment conducive to long-term intra-host virus adaptation. The third possibility is that Omicron could have accumulated mutations in a nonhuman host and then jumped into humans. Currently, the second scenario represents the most popular hypothesis regarding the proximal origins of Omicron..."
Attkisson doesn't have one person willing to give the lab theory on the record.
The article is click bait from an author who makes her living off of clicks.