John sent me an article from the Edmonton Journal that describes the research by a Ph.D. candidate at the U of A. The headline …

“University of Alberta research finds vaccines played key role in ‘domesticating’ virus”

Story by Jackie Carmichael 

… and went on to say …

“Research from Ryley McClelland, a PhD candidate in virology, and his colleagues shows vaccines played a key role in reducing the pathogenicity — the ability of an organism to cause disease — of SARS-CoV-2 by speeding up the domestication process, and helping it adapt to humans without killing.”

Full article: =>  University of Alberta research finds vaccines played key role in ‘domesticating’ virus (msn.com)

This seemed just too fortuitous and so I looked up the research article also provided by John:

=> Frontiers | The domestication of SARS-CoV-2 into a seasonal infection by viral variants (frontiersin.org

… and although I read it backwards and forwards I couldn’t find where the vaccines were responsible for what the authors were describing as “viral domestication”.

The researchers from the U of A seem to have rediscovered that highly virulent pathogens usually evolve into more benign pathogens over time. The basic selection mechanism is that it’s not advantageous to kill the organism that helps you replicate and spread your progeny. With some exceptions, biology favours readily transmitted, nonlethal viruses. Keep your vector walking.

It seems that the journalist has taken some license to promote the failed vaccines.

No! No! You’re wrong! The vaxxes saved millions of lives – no really!

Faced with more and more evidence that the mRNA shots have had little to no effect on the transmission and morbidity of Covid and that they have caused many thousands of sudden deaths around the world, those responsible for three+ years of chaos are desperately seeking proof the vaccines saved more lives than they have killed.

Back in November 2021, the Omicron variant arose in Botswana and South Africa. This was a highly transmissible variant and within a few weeks quickly spread around the globe, shooing out and replacing the Delta strain. Fortunately, as biology would predict, from the UofA article, Omicron was less virulent, an estimated 91% decrease in mortality compared to the Delta variant.

Now that implies that Omicron saved a lot of lives as it naturally immunized a lot of people against Covid. And, apparently in the same way that natural immunity was cavalierly dismissed, viral evolution cannot be credited with pacifying the virus, so the Edmonton Journal article reinterprets the science to credit the vaccine for creating Omicron and thus those jolly pharma moguls saved countless lives. Wow! talk about the luck of unintended consequences!

Just one aside. When Omicron emerged, the places of its origin, Botswana and South Africa were about 26% vaccinated compared to 74% in the UK and 67% in the US. So one has to wonder if the vaccines were causing viral domestication, why there?

Never depend on journalists for your science.