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saintonge235's avatar

Yes, Omicron could be a lab leak. But there's another important possibility: a side effect of the new Merck drug, molnupiravir.

That drug works by causing mutations during virus reproduction, and it was tested in South Africa, just where the new variant was first seen. And many of the mutations of Omicron seem to be ones preferentially caused by molnupiravir.

See the thread beginning with http://twitter.com/LongDesertTrain/status/1474180376369278978, or the unroll at https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1474180376369278978.html.

They are floundering around in a self-created panic here, not knowing what they are doing.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Yep, floundering.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Just finished. Disturbing.

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Thomas J's avatar

Watching one of those total infection tickers on Twitch early on in the crisis, I do recall that Vietnam really didn't seem to be posting numbers like I would have expected. Just seemed like proximity and population and health care, it would have been more lethal that I observed. I don't really have analysis of it, but the idea posited of some pre-alpha -19 circulating in 2018 could have provided protection against a more lethal variant that was to follow.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

It's an interesting idea, and he backs it up with additional analysis. Bottom line: Omicron demands an explanation.

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MikeinFL's avatar

Great tie in of the above. If I could also offer something that I may have posted a while ago, but maybe some haven't seen it yet, in addition to the early treatments that McCullough and others are promoting, you can also do your body a favor by stimulating your innate immune system with hydrothermal therapy. HTT was widely used prior to the discovery of antibiotics and I first learned of it from Dr. Seheult's Medcram series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1LHgyfPPQ8

They used to treat syphilis by inducing fever by giving the patient Malaria and then treating the Malaria:

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/malarial-fever-as-neurosyphilis-treatment-a-historical-case-study-in-medical-ethics/

Human monocyte stimulation by experimental whole body hyperthermia

"The thermal effect of fever, an evolutionarily conserved acute-phase response, has been associated with better survival and a shorter duration of disease in cases of infection. "

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12060966/

Scientific Evidence-Based Effects of Hydrotherapy on Various Systems of the Body

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC4049052/

Just thought this might be useful to some in lieu of No-Hope Brandon's prediction of a Dark Winter of Death.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Interesting. This isn't the same thing, but I used to be a big believer in sweating out a fever.

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