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Steep Learning Curve

Researchers from a Boston University lab announced on Oct. 14 that they created a new hybrid version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in their lab by combining the omicron spike protein with the original virus, and that mice infected with the new strain had an 80% mortality rate – 78% higher than the variant first reported in China’s Wuhan.
Sputnik
Netizens far and wide recently raised an uproar after news broke that a Boston University lab created a hybrid COVID-19 strain with a devastating mortality rate, with concerns over the dangers of such an endeavor not being worth the returns.
“This research must stop immediately. It is unconscionable that NIH sponsors this lethal gain of function virus research through Boston University and EcoHealth Alliance in densely populated areas, creating potential to kill more people than any singular nuclear weapon,” wrote Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) on Twitter.
According to the researchers, the study provides important insights into omicron’s ability to cause disease. However, news that the US is using biolabs to make hybrid viruses after blaming other countries for creating the SARS-CoV-2 virus in similar labs brings to the fore questions about how dangerous virus manipulation may prove in the future.
Dr. Richard Ebright, a chemist at Rutgers University, called out the research, saying in an interview:“If we are to avoid a next lab-generated pandemic, it is imperative that the oversight of enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research be strengthened.”
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