Outrage as Boston University CREATES Covid strain that has an 80% kill rate
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Boston University CREATING New Covid Strain With 80% Death Rate – Echoing Dangerous Experiments Feared Might Have Started a Pandemic
- Researchers added Omicron’s spike protein to the original Covid strain
- The protein makes it highly contagious, meaning the new virus is doubly deadly
- 80% percent of mice died from the lab-created strain at Boston University
- The investigation has been called ‘dangerously reckless’ and ‘very stupid’
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US researchers have developed a new deadly strain of Covid in a lab — echoing the kind of experiments many fear the pandemic has begun.
The mutant variant — a hybrid of Omicron and the original Wuhan virus — killed 80 percent of the mice infected with it at Boston University.
However, when a similar group of rodents were exposed to the standard Omicron strain, they all survived and experienced only “mild” symptoms.
The scientists also infected human cells with the hybrid variant and found that it was five times more infectious than Omicron. This suggests that the man-made virus may be the most contagious form yet.
It will no doubt surprise many Americans that such experiments are continuing in the US, despite concerns that similar studies may have led to the global Covid outbreak.
Covid first started to spread from a wet market in Wuhan, China, about eight miles from a virology lab that manipulated bat coronaviruses.
Chinese scientists were found to have wiped crucial databases and suppressed independent research into the lab’s links to the pandemic.
Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories is one of 13 biosafety level 4 labs in the US
These labs can carry out the most dangerous types of research, dealing with highly contagious viruses such as Covid and Ebola
80 percent of the mice died from the new man-made Covid strain, while none died from the milder Omicron variant alone, researchers at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories found.
In the new ones Research, That hasn’t been peer-reviewed, a team of researchers from Boston and Florida extracted Omicron’s spike protein — the unique structure that binds to and penetrates human cells.
It has always been there, but it has evolved more over time. Omicron has dozens of mutations in its spike protein that made it so infectious.
Researchers attached Omicron’s spike protein to the original wild-type strain that first emerged in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic.
The researchers looked at how mice fared under the new hybrid strain compared to the original Omicron variant.
In the paper, they wrote, “In … mice, Omicron causes a mild, non-fatal infection, but the Omicron S-carrying virus causes severe disease with an 80 percent fatality rate.”
They said it signaled that while the spike protein is responsible for infectivity, changes in other parts of the structure determine its lethality.
The scientists also looked at the effect of the different strains on human lung cells grown in the lab.
They found that the original Covid strain produced the high levels of infectious virus particles, and the new hybrid strain produced five times more infectious particles than Omicron.
The scientists admit that the hybrid virus is unlikely to be as deadly in real humans as it is in mice.
This is because they do not have an identical immune response, as most of the same genes are used differently in mice and humans.
The Boston University National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories lab is one of 13 biosafety level 4 labs in the US.
These are laboratories authorized to treat the most dangerous pathogens.
Others include labs in Texas, Atlanta, and Manhattan.
Experiments in these labs often tinker with animal viruses to advance treatments and vaccines that can be used in a future outbreak.
Have we learned nothing? 40 new biochemical labs to treat dangerous viruses are being built around the world
The Coronavirus pandemic has sparked a global wave of labs dealing with dangerous viruses – despite concerns that Covid may be the result of the risky experiments.
More than 40 facilities certified as Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) or BSL-4 have been built or are under construction since 2020, mainly in Asia.
Many countries believe they have been caught flat-footed by Covid and want to get ahead of the next devastating outbreak by studying pathogens that threaten humans.
Experiments in these labs often tinker with animal viruses to advance treatments and vaccines that can be used in a future outbreak.
There are currently 63 BSL-4 labs, the highest level of security, around the world. This is higher than the 59 that were in operation or planned last year. Three quarters are located in urban areas. South America and Africa are some of the places that do not have access to the labs
But there are widespread concerns that these experiments could increase the risk of pandemics – something some experts believe was the case with Covid.
The virus first started to spread from a wet market in Wuhan, about eight miles from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a high-security biolab working with dangerous bat coronaviruses.
Scientists there were working on some of Covid’s close relatives. They were also found to have wiped crucial databases and suppressed independent research into the lab’s links to the pandemic.
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia in England, told DailyMail.com he was concerned about what all the new labs would be used for.
‘The problem is what you’re going to use [the labs] for,” he told this website. “If they’re for diagnostic purposes, then you need them. But I don’t think every country needs a BSL-4.’
He added, “If they’re going to have a dual purpose for research that has offensive military implications, that’s the concern.”
Russia has set out its proposals for 15 of the maximum security labs and India is aiming for a total of 18 BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs. The US is also adding a top-level biosecurity lab to the existing 12.