I would also note that the author explicitly does not think it's a spillover event from an introduction to an animal population that later re-entered the human population. The reason being there is a small insertion of complementary RNA from humans that was injected into the virus.
I disagree. The small chunk of the sequence that had been inserted is present in RNA for all primates. It's possible that it was introduced to primates, circulated, and then was re-introduced to humans.
> The presence of host derived RNA insertion from the TMEM245 gene (https://virological.org/t/putative-host-origins-of-rna-inser...) would argue for evolution within human population. Otherwise I would have had this spillback from animal population on the list of hypotheses.
Also possible that it incubated in someone for nearly a year. While reading Omicron news a couple days ago, there was mention of an immune-suppressed individual who was found positive 260 days after initial infection.
I disagree. The small chunk of the sequence that had been inserted is present in RNA for all primates. It's possible that it was introduced to primates, circulated, and then was re-introduced to humans.