There’s a Giant, Mysterious Gap in the Omicron Variant’s Family Tree

. . .So how did omicron rack up so many mutations on its spike proteins, without any intermediate steps of evolution through other variants? Scientists have theories about how that happened, though none are comforting.

First, note that mutations are, to some degree, expected of a virus. As the novel coronavirus began to lose battle after battle to human immune systems and due to human ingenuity (vaccines), the “survivor” viruses tended to be the ones that mutated to effectively ward off human efforts at immunity. Those survivors then pass those traits to the offspring viruses it creates through replication. Thanks to genetic technology, researchers have been able to study those mutant strains and learn about SARS-CoV-2’s “family tree,” so to speak — that is, the relationship between all the variants that stemmed from one another.

Here’s where it gets weird. There is a big gap in the omicron variant’s timeline.

Sequence characteristics in any virus’ genome can be matched in databases with other strains so experts can deduce their origins. Scientists trace these family trees to learn more about a virus’ lineage, and in the hope that this information will help them defeat it. Yet the most recent identifiable sequences on the omicron variant’s genome originate from over a year ago, all the way back to the middle of 2020. This means that scientists cannot link it to currently circulating strains. Yet they know for sure that this strain is very different from the original SARS-CoV-2 strain that brought the world to its knees at the beginning of 2020. . .

One hypothesis is that it developed in an immunocompromised COVID-19 patient. While there is no direct evidence that this happened, scientists do know that viruses can become stronger in the body of a person with a weak immune system, because they circulate for longer — continuing to mutate as they evade the patients’ weakened immune system. A virus that circulates for months in the body of an immunocompromised patient might be able to develop superior survival skills by developing defenses against human antibodies. (Read more from “There’s a Giant, Mysterious Gap in the Omicron Variant’s Family Tree” HERE)

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