OK, going through some of the applicant's citations listed in the patent for COVID spike proteins and these guys were studying some seriously dangerous stuff…and decided to get a patent for it. What the hell for?
This is just a tiny sample of the genome references they have, but more than enough to make the point.
https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&s1=9884895.PN.