Ben Whedon, Just the News: Boston University says it's developed deadlier COVID strain, senator calls it ‘unconscionable’
Boston University researchers claim to have developed a new COVID strain that far surpasses the COVID-19 strain in terms of lethality.
A team of Floridian and Bostonian scientists at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories say the new strain has an 80% kill rate, according to Fox News. The strain is a combination of both the original virus and the Omicron strain that later spread like wildfire across the world.
Researchers used mice to test the lethality of the new COVID variant, dubbed "Omicron S."
"In... mice, while Omicron causes mild, non-fatal infection, the Omicron S-carrying virus inflicts severe disease with a mortality rate of 80 percent," they wrote, per the outlet.
Similar experiments were taking place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the original outbreak. The scientists there were performing "gain-of-function" research to amplify and alter the properties of coronaviruses. A leak from the lab remains one of the most prominent theories as to the origins of the pandemic.
Congress has since banned funding to the Chinese lab.
Read the rest here.
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