Did a collision of COVID-19 and HIV forge the omicron variant?
by Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times
Dec 02, 2021
4 minutes
The omicron variant, now present in at least 23 countries around the world, was probably incubated in the body of a person with an immune system battered by HIV or another immune-compromising condition that can cause a prolonged coronavirus infection, according to the South African scientist who detected the fast-spreading genetic mutant.
Tulio De Oliveira said the emergence of omicron in a patient unable to clear the virus quickly was "the most plausible" origin story for the world's newest variant of concern.
There's good reason to think so.
Researchers in the United States and Europe have seen coronaviruses with
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