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Re:Linus Torvalds on mRNA Vaccines by moralestapia on Thursday June 10, 2021 @07:40PM (#27467500)
>In all of your comments here you're being pretty ridiculous [...]

Well, that says more about you than me, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

>I was a genetic engineer for 20 years and engineered plenty of viruses for therapeutics, including plenty of retroviruses.

Your website and LinkedIn say otherwise ... unless you were doing it as a hobby? Sure, then.

Given all your (presumed) experience, what's your opinion on this: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/21/e2105968118

Re:Linus Torvalds on mRNA Vaccines by alevskaya on Thursday June 10, 2021 @08:51PM (#27468015)
The paper you link to is overexpressing LINE1 on plasmid in HEK293 cells and coinfecting w. sars-cov-2 - not exactly a natural setup! They see some nucleocapsid fragment integration and limited expression, but it's a pretty forced experiment, honestly. Also the whole virus is very different from the mRNA payload of the vaccines. Having a random chunk snagged by an overexpressed retrotransposon is a far cry from a meaningful integration event. Though LINE/Alu transposon integrations are an interesting driver of evolution on million-year timescales.

(and: not a hobby. I was at UCSF, Stanford, and helped start several biotechs. You would have more traction here if you acted a little more thoughtful with those trying to talk to you.)