"Mere discovery" in general is a gray area, which many jurisdictions do not recognize as eligible for patent. Patents are supposed to incentivize creation. It's

"Mere discovery" in general is a gray area, which many jurisdictions do not recognize as eligible for patent. Patents are supposed to incentivize creation. It's much less helpful to society to grant a monopoly on a naturally occurring thing, that already exists, to the first person to happen to stumble across it. Supposing it wasn't a protein from a single human, but a protein contained in all blueberries. Blueberries are now known to be a cure for Covid-19 if you eat tons of them. Should the discoverer of this world-changing fact be suddenly granted a monopoly on blueberries?