Self spreading viruses

April 2022

Is there any such thing as a non-self-spreading virus? Or, to re-phrase the question using some of the alternative, interchangeable, technical terms which pop up: is there any such thing as a non-transmissible, non-self-disseminating, non-contagious, non-horizontally-transferable virus?

The answer is no. Viruses only exist by hijacking living cells and forcing them to churn out viral particles. Viruses wouldn't exist if they weren't self-spreading, transmissible, self-disseminating, contagious, horizontally transferable (and uncontrollable).

So, what are we talking about?

These tautological descriptors are euphemisms for GM viruses.

The excuse for all this evasive terminology is that there's been a sea-change in the nature of vaccination. Historically, humans have successfully used inactivated viruses as vaccines against disease. More recently, new-fangled disabled GM viruses have been used as vectors for inserting a gene to induce self-vaccination*, for example, AstraZenica's DNA vaccine against Covid-19.

* These vectors were originally developed for gene therapy

Fast approaching are live 'self-spreading' GM viruses specifically designed to proliferate and alter organisms in the environment.

These fully functional, self-perpetuating GM viruses have already been trialled for eliminating pests, such as foxes, mice and rabbits, by killing them or sterilising them. Live GM viruses have also been proposed for multiple agricultural uses, including as vectors to create GM insecticide-generating plants in the field. They've also been proposed as vectors of vaccines for humans, endangered species, wildlife and livestock. In the current Covid crisis, using GM viruses to control coronavirus in wildlife which are deemed potential reservoirs for future pandemics might be an attractive proposition for various reasons.

But, are these applications sensible and safe?

Scientists in the field assert that live GM viral vaccines can be molecularly 'fine tuned' to have predetermined life spans so that they will disappear, or, like the AstraZenica Covid-19 vaccine, can be constructed from a harmless virus which has the codes for the pathogen's proteins inserted.

Viruses out there in the environment, passing through organisms as they 'self-spread', are known to mutate with great frequency. They're also known to re-combine (mix-and-match) with other viruses which share their hosts. They're also known to interact with each other's pathogenicity, both to increase it (creating a disease or make an existing one worse) or to decrease it (potentially inactivating a GM vaccine). The vast majority of virus 'species' which could be part of these interactions have not been described by science. Viruses are well-known for 'jumping' between species. Let's face it, they're unpredictable and uncontrollable.

OUR COMMENT

Pharmaceutical companies haven't, up to now, shown much interest in self-spreading GM viral vaccines because they weren't profitable. However, now that we seem to be faced with endemic, and constantly evolving, Covid-19 their ideas might change.

It's not at all clear why the above high-tech safeguards won't disappear due to recombination or evolution once they're subject to real-world stresses, evolutionary pressures and the inevitable influence of other viruses around them. And the military applications would be boundless.

That's a lot of reasons to tell the government now to learn the lesson of Covid-19 and what happens when a virus, which may well have leaked into the environment from a maximum containment laboratory [1], runs out of control. Tell your Member of Parliament that world governments must pull together to stop the development of 'self-spreading' GM viruses before they find themselves with another 'self-spreading' GM killer pathogen pandemic.


Background

[1] COVID THEORIES Parts I, II and III - April 2022


SOURCES:

• Filippa Lentzos, et al., 7 January 2022, Eroding norms over release of self-spreading viruses, Science 375
• Rodrigo Pérez Ortega, Can Vaccines for Wildlife Prevent Human Pandemics? Quant Magazine, 24.08.20
• Animal vaccines with self-spreading viruses, Max Planck Gesellschaft, 19.01.22
• Risky Research Eroding Norms on Release of GM Self-spreading Viruses, Third World Network, 7.01.22

Image Creative Commons