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This paper proposes that there are 4 short "insertions" in the spike protein in #nCoV2019 copied from HIV. Yesterday, I showed that the proposed inserts are tiny strings that randomly match a whole bunch of things. 2/9
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These short inserts do indeed exist in #nCoV2019 relative to its closest sequenced relative (BetaCoV/bat/Yunnan/RaTG13/2013, seen here nextstrain.org/groups/blab/sa). However, a simple BLAST of such short sequences shows match to a huge variety of organisms. No reason to conclude HIV.
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#nCoV2019 is a member of the SARS-like virus family. These circulate naturally in bats and undergo all sorts of evolution during this natural circulation. Two of these viruses (SARS in 2002-03 and nCoV in 2019-20) have spilled over into the human population causing outbreaks. 3/9
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Here, I include additional SARS-like viruses in an alignment of spike protein to show that these "inserts" are nothing of the sort proposed by the paper and instead arose naturally in the ancestral bat virus 4/9
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Looking at each "insert" in turn. We see that "insert 1" (GTNGTKR) is present in the closely related virus bat/Yunnan/RaTG13/2013. It is impossible that this sequence was "inserted" into the #nCoV2019 genome. 5/9
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We see that "insert 2" (YYHKNNKS) doesn't appear to be an insertion at all, but an alignment artifact of the authors. Also, it is present in the closest bat virus RaTG13 with related sequences in closely related viruses. No way this is an insertion into #nCoV2019. 6/9
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"Insert 3" (GDSSSG) also appears to be a possible alignment artifact, though this is equivocal. However, this "insert" is most definitely in RaTG13. There was no insertion of RNA into the #nCoV2019 spike protein. 7/9
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"Insert 4" (QTNSPRRA) shares GTNS with the bat virus RaTG13, while PRRA represents unique material in #nCoV2019. This is a tiny tiny sequence and in no way suggests engineering. This sorts of small indels occur all the time in natural evolution of SARS-like coronaviruses. 8/9
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Propoganda gets people when they don't understand the science. Same thing with anti-vacc'ers. Thanks for doing this. I believed it was just a spill-over from an animal - just like many recent swine, bird, monkey and cow pathogens. That makes more simple historical sense.
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This does not refute all theories that the Wuhan lab was doing experiments (including weaponization ones). Accidental release, or a worker became infected, and brought it to the market. Nor does it eliminate the possibility of the lab selling animals to the market.
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Folks STOP listening to these pretenders. He is NOT A FUCKING RESEARCHER!! RED FLAGS - Calls himself Doctor Paul Cottrell - Wears Harvard shirt and hat - 6 monitors (probably a day trader than a scientist This is his Linkedin. PhD in Management - Finance linkedin.com/in/paulcottrel
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