Topic: Virulence

Bret Weinstein explains how gain-of-function research uses animals and tissues to "re-rig" viruses, potentially creating traits like the furin cleavage site. He suggests that once an engineered virus is released, it explores "evolutionary space" in ways that differ from natural wild-type viruses.

The guests discuss a trend of rising cervical cancer rates in women aged 20-28 in the UK despite high vaccine uptake. They suggest "strain replacement" may be occurring, where non-vaccine strains of HPV become more virulent to fill the void left by targeted strains.