Boston University CREATES a new Covid strain that has an 80% kill rate — echoing dangerous experiments feared to have started pandemic
- Researchers added Omicron’s spike protein to the original Covid strain
- The protein makes it highly infectious, meaning the new virus is doubly deadly
- 80% per cent of mice died from the lab-created strain at Boston University
- The research has been called ‘dangerously reckless’ and ‘very dumb’
US researchers have developed a new lethal Covid strain in a laboratory – echoing the type of experiments many fear started the pandemic.
The mutant variant — which is a hybrid of Omicron and the original Wuhan virus — killed 80 per cent of mice infected with it at Boston University.
When a similar group of rodents were exposed to the standard Omicron strain, however, they all survived and only experienced ‘mild’ symptoms.
The scientists also infected human cells with the hybrid variant and found it was five times more infectious than Omicron. This suggests the man-made virus might be the most contagious form yet.
It will no doubt surprise many Americans that such experiments continue to go on in the US despite concerns similar studies may have led to the global Covid outbreak.
Covid first began spreading from a wet market in Wuhan, China, about eight miles from a similar high-security virology laboratory that manipulated bat coronaviruses.
Chinese scientists were found to have wiped crucial databases and stifled independent investigations into the facility’s links to the pandemic.
Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories is one of 13 biosafety level 4 labs in the US
The most dangerous types of research can be carried out in these labs, handling highly infectious viruses such as Covid and Ebola
80 per cent of 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In the new research, which has not been peer-reviewed, a team of researchers from Boston and Florida extracted Omicron’s spike protein — the unique structure that binds to and invades human cells.
It has always been present but it has become more evolved 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 wildtype 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.
Writing in the paper, they said: ‘In…mice, while Omicron causes mild, non-fatal infection, the Omicron S-carrying virus inflicts severe disease with a mortality rate of 80 per cent.’
They said it signaled that while the spike protein is responsible for infectivity, changes to other parts of its structure determine its deadliness.
The scientists also looked at the different strains’ effect on human lung cells that were 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 the hybrid virus would be unlikely to be as deadly in real humans as it was in mice.
This is because they don’t have identical immune responses, as most of the same genes are used differently in mice and humans.
The lab, at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, is one of 13 biosafety level 4 labs in the US.
These are labs that are authorized to handle the most dangerous pathogens.
Others include labs in Texas, Atlanta and Manhattan.
Experiments at these labs often involve tinkering with animal viruses to advance treatments and vaccines that could be used in a future outbreak.
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