(EXCLUSIVE) Experts: ‘Omicron Covid-19 likely came from a lab, too’

• Scientists say Omicron appears to have a clear lab origin
• Future lab releases of Covid-19 variants are “likely”

26 March 2022

SHARYL ATTKISSON –When Omicron emerged, many scientists were bowled over by the lightning speed with which it spread. Although public health officials had warned that the original Covid-19 was highly contagious and fast-moving— it looked like it was standing still next to the Omicron variant.

Now, some scientists examining the virus have concluded “vast” genetic mutations that likely occurred in a lab setting are what makes Omicron spread so quickly.

Omicron was first detected in Botswana, South Africa, reported to have been brought by a foreign delegation from a country officials will not identify, making it more difficult for outside observers to track its origin.

To many scientists, the genetic differences that made Omicron so quickly transmissible caused it to immediately stand out as unlikely to be a result of a natural evolution. Some note the “rapid accumulation of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant that enabled its outbreak.”

“There was a large number of mutations in this variant — many more than we would expect from the normal evolution of this virus,” said virologist Andrew Pekosz, Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Importantly, many mutations occurred in the spike protein — the protein the virus uses to bind to and enter cells — which is the target of the vaccine.” […]