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Further evidence supports claim: SARS-CoV-2 genes can integrate with human DNA (sciencemag.org)
11 points by skept 1871 days ago
3 comments

> He adds that when they first submitted the paper to a journal, they knew it needed stronger data, which they hoped to add during the review process.

That's a terrible way to go about publishing your work.

> And what of the original journal submission? “They rejected it,” Jaenisch says.

I wonder why!

The article spells it out, whether any of these results apply to the real world is speculation at this point.

Isn't this true of most viral DNA? Could have sworn its been documented that a decent portion of human DNA has viral origins
Not all viruses have the capabilities to endogenise into the host dna.

Yes we can see evidence of this in the human dna but thats not evidence that all viruses integrate.

Yes. Covid continues to behave like any other virus.
How utterly shocking. This headlines make normal behavior sound scary
So how would this hypothesis impact the idea of vaccination?
I’d guess it would reinforce the importance of getting vaccinated quickly, when vaccines are available for a disease, the same as for avoiding other side effects of contracting disease that we already know about.

But OTOH, the researchers seem to have added reverse transcriptase, which is something not normally active or present in most viruses (otherwise typically know as the central dogma of molecular biology). I don’t know enough to extrapolate how much that affects the applicability of their conclusions.