The Omega Option

What if I told you there were a way to get everybody vaccinated for COVID-19 and end the pandemic within a few short months if not sooner? No doubt you would first call me crazy, but then of course you would ask how such a thing might be possible. Is it actually possible? It absolutely is and the technology and knowledge required to do so exist today. In fact if the right resources were allocated to the job I estimate the omega option could be deployed within one to two months and the pandemic ended within a few short months after that. Sounds too good to be true you are probably thinking. What's the catch?

In order to do this thing we would need to engineer another virus as the delivery agent for the vaccine, specifically to deliver the genes necessary for the virus to use our bodies own cells to produce SARS-CoV-2 spike protein thus priming our own immune system to generate neutralizing antibodies against it, providing protection from infection. If you are already thinking that sounds nuts read on because the virus we would need to use as the delivery agent would be the variola virus better known as smallpox. This particular virus has all the ideal characteristics to act as carrier for our COVID-19 vaccine for several reasons. First it is highly contagious so once released into the population (spread across several large population centers) it would spread lighting quick infecting everyone in a matter of weeks to months immunizing the infected population against SARS-CoV-2 as it spreads. Second, it is relative easy to create an attenuated version, still highly contagious but not lethal deadly. In point of fact this is essentially what the smallpox vaccine is/was, a live, attenuated, smallpox virus knows as cowpox. Third it has a very large genome (for a virus) and is easily manipulatable from a genetic engineering perspective therefore the genes of interest (those coding for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein) could easily be inserted into our attenuated vaccine strain. Even better because the genome is so large genes coding for all of the variant spike proteins that currently exist could easily be inserted thus making the vaccine multivalent and effective against all known variants.

From an ethical perspective this of course raises all sorts of red flags. We would in effect be infecting people with a genetically engineered virus created in a laboratory in order to vaccinate them against their will in some cases. The irony that an actual lab created virus could be used to stop a purportedly but not actually lab created virus is not lost on me. You can imagine the uproar if such a thing were to be seriously contemplated or actually done and it became public knowledge. If you think the COVID-19 conspiracy theories are nuts wait until the omega option becomes known to the public. The fact that we would be engineering smallpox, a virus with a seriously negative historical image, and deservedly so, would greatly aggravate the outrage and concern. And there are real risks. As we have seen with SARS-CoV-2 viruses mutate, and they mutate quickly and frequently dependent on the vagaries of environmental selective pressures. Who knows what virus could eventually emerge from this genetically engineered vaccine strain. In truth, this objection is easily addressed again by means of genetic engineering. Various failsafes or "kill switch" genes could be engineered into the virus such that if it mutates by a certain predetermined amount it will in essence self destruct and no longer pose a threat to anyone. Of course, when dealing with living systems, no systems are foolproof and such a thing could never be 100% certain.

I am not suggesting that the omega option is a good idea or that we should seriously consider it, and I certainly have no special knowledge that anyone in any position of authority inside or outside of government has considered it. But, they would be stupid to not put every option on the table for serious debate and discussion. If it comes down to a choice between a slowly decaying world sent into economic collapse and catastrophe by COVID-19 run amok or releasing engineered smallpox in a last ditch effort to stop it, I would support the omega option. But only as the very last option, only if it is our only hope. Let's all hope it does not come down to that.