Paradigm crushing evidence that virus can share genetic material

(Human) DNA-synthesizing machinery tends to have an error correction mechanism. It will figure out if there’s a problem, usually because the structure is kind of weird; if it’s not the right pairing, it will excise and repair the mistake. That happens during replication. It’s as if, while you were copying down a text and made typos, you could proofread and fix them.

The RNA-synthesizing machinery that most RNA viruses use to copy their genome doesn’t have this error correction mechanism. But coronaviruses have a special enzyme that allows them to do error correction, so they have a lower mutation rate than other RNA viruses.

Each virus genome is alone, but you can imagine situations where you could have two viruses co-infecting the same cell, and in those cases, they might be able to compensate for each other.

There’s definitely evidence that some coronaviruses can recombine, too. It there are two genomes that infect the same cell—just like our genomes are combined during the division of the stem cells—they could recombine into a fully fixed genome as it comes out.    -Source (Tufts University)

The sophomore-in-college level of understanding regarding how virus propagate is that rather than two parents contributing genetic material which is then combined to form the zygote, the virus chop-shops existing RNA or DNA in the host's cell and uses itself as the template. It is a bit like a half-zipper creating its mate by fitting hunks of drifting junk to itself.

Bacteria split and don't have a second parent BUT they do have the ability to "kiss and swap spit" with other bacteria...even bacteria from other species...even with non-bacteria. One of the earliest forms of genetic engineering used bacteria to ferry genetic material from one organism to another.

Most plants and animals can accept genetic material from two parents. Mutations that arise on one population can combine with mutations that spontaneously arose in another population. Offspring that carry mutations which combine synergistic survive. Offspring which carry less auspicious mutations/combinations do not. The important point is that random mutations have the opportunity to combine via sexual reproduction and do not rely on brute-numbers to achieve mutation stacking.

The evidence that corona virus has this capability is the omicron variant where the mutations of a dozen other variants stacked-up in the same virus. Each mutation, by its self, is an oddity with astronomical odds stacked against it. The odds of a single organism mutating indentically the same as two other variants is astronomically^2 and so on. The mutations stacked much more quickly in omicron than traditional virus replication theory supports.

This argument is the same as when the old guy pointed an umbrella at a bear and said "Bang!" and the bear collapsed with a bullet-hole in its chest. Clearly, there is more to the story than our original understanding. The most likely "more" is that there is a second person with a rifle that is not comprehended in the original word-sketch.

Here is where it gets weird

If Fauci knew from the beginning that Covid-19 had the ability to recombine then his fantastical resistance to the use of antivirals to treat Covid-19 makes sense.

Widespread use of antivirals would accelerate the resistance of the treatment among the common strains floating around.

Resistance to antiviral treatments would reduce the survival chances of "important" people. By suppressing the use of antivirals in the general population, the viral population would remain naive and antiviral treatments could be reserved for "Important People".

Two trains of thought:

Who are the "Important People"? Surely one of those groups includes Congress but one other group that seems to have disproportionately large representation includes people at highest risk for HIV infection. It is conceivable that the strategies Covid develops to avoid antivirals could be passed to the HIV virus.

The other thought, perhaps even more ominous, is that the only way Fauci could have known that Covid-19 possessed this hither-to-fore unknown ability to recombine at the start of the epidemic would be if he knew Covid-19 had been created in a lab and if he somehow knew that "ability to recombine" had been included in the project's deliverables.

Bleak thoughts for the day when we commemorate the previous time the United States was blind-sided by an attack launched by a foreign power.