The story has gone viral: Scientists have found snake venom toxins in the plasma and fecal samples of COVID-19 patients.
It was a very small study — 20 patients with COVID and 10 without — but since September 2021, the idea that this venom-like substance is part and parcel of what’s driving COVID deaths has been spreading from mainstream news to science websites all over the world.
But is it true? Is snake venom somehow connected to COVID-19? In a review for Children’s Health Defense, James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., questions the validity of extrapolating conclusions from a study of a handful of people who live in areas where they may have been treating themselves with animal venoms.
Specifically, Weiler points out two relevant questions:
- Five control samples are too few. How many people without COVID-19 have the protein in their blood or feces?
- Were these patients treating themselves (or under the care of doctors) for COVID-19 (or another autoimmunity) with animal venoms?
So what’s going on here? Can the human body produce a snake-like, killer venom in COVID patients or were they treating themselves without telling their physicians?
“My favored hypothesis is that autoimmune patients in Italy using animal venoms to treat their autoimmunity — or to ward off COVID-19 — have confused the heck out of scientists who find those venoms or metabolites thereof in their feces and blood,” Weiler says. “But it’s also possible that we produce proteins in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection that match venom in other species. Unlikely, but I can’t rule it out.”
SOURCES:
Children’s Health Defense April 14, 2022
ABC News San Diego September 2, 2021