Monkeypox is suddenly on everyone’s radar, especially now that the WHO is considering declaring a global emergency for it. (See bottom link). This is after having gone from a handful of cases outside of the area where it is endemic to over 1,600 cases in mere weeks. According to a recent WSJ piece June 11-12, p. A4, 'Close Contact, Travel Fuel Monkeypox Cases') most of the cases reported could be traced to close contact with an infected person or international travel. But a disturbing core of perhaps 15 percent were connected to either and "suggested community transmission" according to deputy director of the CDC Jennifer McQuiston.
Given the horrors that COVID-19 and what its sub-variants (e.g. Delta) have wrought, it is hardly surprising that people are wondering if this is another pandemic in the making. But what if such a future pandemic manifested as a hybrid virus combining the RNA of Covid-19 and DNA of Monkeypox into a new and even more lethal Covid-Monkypox mutant? Far -fetched? Not according to Bajan biochemist John Phillips,
Phillips' hypothesis basically depends on a virus 'hijacking' another virus, in this case Covid -19 doing a molecular hijacking of monkeypox. Phillips reminded me of an August, 2008 Scientific American article citing French researchers who discovered a viral first … a virus that infects another virus. In this case, a virus called ‘Sputnik’ was found in a newly discovered strain of so-called mimivirus, which is the world's largest known virus. According to Virologist Jean-Michel Claverie, if this mimivirus can both pirate another virus's DNA-copying machinery and fall prey to another virus then other cases of virus hijacking are possible. Even of a DNA virus by RNA virus (like Sars-Cov-2) is not out of the question. The last is Phillips' point.
COVID-19, has a protein capsid that is surrounded by a phospholipid envelope. Inside its capsid is a genome of RNA. Spike proteins called, S- proteins, recognize the ACE2 receptors of host cells allowing the virus to enter the host cell. Upon entry into the host cell, the virus hijacks the host and turns it into a factory producing many, many copies of SARS-CoV-2. Let reassortment – say with monkeypox virus occur- and one gets production of a hybrid virus
Phillips conjecture a reassortment is also possible and given the many weird attributes of SARS-COV-2, more than likely. This reassortment is a process of genetic recombination that is exclusive to segmented RNA viruses in which co-infection of a host cell with multiple viruses may result in the shuffling of gene segments to generate progeny viruses with novel genome combinations.
In Mr. Phillips' theory, a monkey suffering from Monkeypox also becomes infected with Covid leading to a highly infectious Covid sub-variant entering into an RNA-DNA genetic recombination with the Monkeypox virus, then reproducing. What is effectively spawned is a Covid-Monkeypox hybrid virus with more lethality than either of the two contributing genomes and much higher R nought. (Phillips estimates R -nought could be as high as 10, once the monkey infects another monkey or a human, or just another animal - say dog.)
A key difference between monkeypox and coronavirus is that the former is a DNA virus and the latter an RNA virus. In short, RNA viruses make more mistakes in their genetic code when replicating than DNA viruses. More mistakes means more mutations, and hence more chance to come up with a new design that is better adapted than the older version that spawned it.
With the increase of cases, we are starting to see what we would term “atypical presentations” of the virus. This means that people are not displaying the typical pustules covering the entire body. Instead, we are seeing small sores in the areas of contact with infected people.
Unfortunately for Phillips' theory, this atypical presentation is probably not due to significant changes in the virus, as a genetic sequence of the virus from a patient in Portugal did not find significant changes in the virus compared with previous outbreaks in 2018 and 2019. Instead, the atypical presentation is probably because we are seeing many more infections and therefore a wider range of symptoms. But Phillips maintains this is neither here nor there as in fact the hybrid Covid-Monkeypox virus still has not appeared - and "it will require a lot more mutations of Covid and along the lines of the scenario I described."
He did allow, however, that a mistaken diagnosis of his hypothesized entity might occur, most likely in the unvaccinated population. Thus an unvaccinated person - child or adult- contracts a highly infectious variant of Covid, then proceeds to get "long Covid" - disabling the immune system. The person then gets infected by Monkeypox, possibly via community transmission - and develops pustules or the characteristic pox in addition to Covid symptoms. His point is that such a person would not harbor any such "hybrid" virus but instead simply be the unfortunate infected by Covid and Monkeypox in succession.
When I tried to pry when the actual hybrid could appear, all he'd say is "Sooner than you might think.." Adding it will "most likely be in the red states where most of your anti-vax idiots reside,"
See Also:
Excerpt:
Monkeypox cases rose almost 40 percent in Britain in under five days, according to data shared by the U.K. Health Security Agency. As of June 16, 574 cases had been recorded, and by June 20, the number had risen to 793.
And:
U.S. monkeypox response mirrors early coronavirus missteps, experts say
And:
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