Pathogenic Priming Nearly Six Years Out

February 6, 2026

https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/pathogenic-priming-nearly-six-years?

Pathogenic Priming Nearly Six Years Out: What Do We Know?

The question in 2026 is no longer whether pathogenic priming is biologically plausible. The question is: What do we do about it?
James Lyons-Weiler, PhD
Jan 24, 2026

In April 2020, “Pathogenic priming likely contributes to serious and critical illness and mortality in COVID‑19 via autoimmunity” introduced a specific concept, backed by data, that repeated exposure to immunogenic viral epitopes that share homology with human proteins would likely prime the immune system toward pathogenic autoimmunity, with consequences that extend beyond acute infection to multi‑system disease and long‑term morbidity.

That paper, funded by the public via IPAK, did not merely assert that “molecular mimicry is possible.” It catalogued predicted autoreactive homology between SARS‑CoV‑2 epitopes and human proteins across immune‑relevant pathways, showed that only one immunogenic epitope lacked human homology, and explicitly warned that exposure by infection or injection carried foreseeable autoimmune risk if those homologous regions were used uncritically in antigen design.¹

Nearly six years later, the literature citing that work no longer sits at the level of conjecture. It contains experimental demonstrations of antibody cross‑reactivity, functional autoantibodies with physiological effects, validated biomarker panels that discriminate post‑acute sequelae of COVID‑19 (PASC), post‑vaccination prolonged‑symptom cohorts with defined autoantibody signatures, tissue‑level immune injury documented at autopsy, and population‑scale shifts in autoimmune disease incidence. The question in 2026 is no longer whether pathogenic priming is biologically plausible. The question is which parts of the causal chain have been empirically observed, which endpoints are now measurable, and where precision still fails.

This article synthesizes that record using the PubMed‑indexed citation corpus associated with the original 2020 paper, frozen as of January 2026, and focuses on what has been observed, not merely predicted.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Weiler and others warned us about pathogenic priming repeatedly.

And here is Weiler’s paper which provides an assessment of potential for human pathogenesis via autoimmunity via exposure, via infection or injection.  Potential has now become reality with measurable evidence.

Now the goal should be to find therapies to alleviate or reverse this autoimmunity caused by exposure to unsafe epitopes.

The evidence is clear.  Important quote:

Pretending otherwise is no longer scientifically defensible. ~ James Lyons Weiler

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Category:

Activism, vaccines, Viruses

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