Supposedly Boston University research didn’t notify the NIAID of their work on a new Covid strain. That strain is REALLY problematic.

Boston University scientists were today condemned for ‘playing with fire’ after it emerged they had created a lethal new Covid strain in a laboratory.

DailyMail.com revealed the team had made a hybrid virus — combining Omicron and the original Wuhan strain — that killed 80 per cent of mice in a study.

The revelation exposes how dangerous virus manipulation research continues to go on even in the US, despite fears similar practices may have started the pandemic.

Wait just a minute, in the interest of trying to figure out how to STOP this virus, Boston University supposedly decided to merge the original Covid and the newer Omicron virus and see what would happen? 

Uhh folks? That’s really leaning into gain of function research areas. But wait! We are supposed to be thrilled that only 80% of the mice died. All cheers for the 20% who survived! 

There’s more to this. Much more. The mice who were only exposed to the Omicron only had mild symptoms. Read that again. Exposure to Omicron wasn’t any big deal. But combining the two? It was curtains for 80% of the poor mice in the study. 

Omicron has been known to be highly transmissible. But instead of studying the variant and working to find out how to make it LESS transmissible, the so-called “geniuses” at Boston University and elsewhere decided to combine the two. 

We generated chimeric recombinant SARS-CoV-2 encoding the S gene of Omicron in the backbone of an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 isolate and compared this virus with the naturally circulating Omicron variant. The Omicron S-bearing virus robustly escapes vaccine-induced humoral immunity, mainly due to mutations in the receptor-binding motif (RBM), yet unlike naturally occurring Omicron, efficiently replicates in cell lines and primary-like distal lung cells. In K18-hACE2 mice, while Omicron causes mild, non-fatal infection, the Omicron S-carrying virus inflicts severe disease with a mortality rate of 80%. This indicates that while the vaccine escape of Omicron is defined by mutations in S, major determinants of viral pathogenicity reside outside of S.

Once the news broke yesterday, people all over the place piled on in disgust that this type of research (which again really looks like gain of function research) was taking place at this time. What does Boston University do? Claim that they weren’t engaged in gain of function and that an 80% death rate is no big deal. 

“The animal model that was used was a particular type of mouse that is highly susceptible, and 80 to 100 percent of the infected mice succumb to disease from the original strain, the so-called Washington strain,” says Corley. “Whereas Omicron causes a very mild disease in these animals.”

Except for one VERY important issue. The mice were infected with a COMBINATION of the two strains.

“Secondly, the research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC), which consists of scientists as well as local community members. The Boston Public Health Commission also approved the research….”

— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 18, 2022

Yet we are supposed to cheer that the death rate is ONLY 80%?

Well, it turns out there is more to the story. It seems that a significant part of the funding is coming from the NIAID. Yes THAT NIAID that Fauci runs until he finally retires at the end of this year. However, according to a key spokeswoman at NIAID, they had NO IDEA that this kind of research was taking place. 

But today, Dr Emily Erbelding, director of NIAID’s division of microbiology and infectious diseases, said the Boston team did not clear the work with the agency.

She claims she only found out the experiments might have involved enhancing a pathogen of pandemic potential after reading reports in the media on Monday.

Dr Erbelding admitted feeling uneasy about the type of research the grants had been used to fund — given the lingering questions about the role of virus manipulation studies and the origins of Covid.

Boston University’s biosafety level 3 National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory extracted the spike protein from Omicron and attached it to the original Wuhan strain that first emerged in China.

Therefore, we now have a lab who really got themselves into a pickle by deciding ‘what the hell. Let’s build a NEW virus and see what happens!’ We are supposed to believe that this NEW hybrid virus is only 80% deadly in mice, yet humans won’t have a problem with battling the virus. We are supposed to believe that every precaution was taken and no humans will ever be at risk from this new Covid virus strain. 

And I call BULLSHIT. As do many others. 

The claims in BU's public statement that: "this research is not gain-of-function research," "it did not..make it more dangerous," and "this research made the virus replicate less dangerous [sic]" are demonstrably false and should be deeply embarrassing.

https://t.co/YFA4uVRJEs

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) October 18, 2022

Boston University’s stance on this?

‘NIAID funding was acknowledged as a courtesy because it was used to help develop the tools and platforms that were used in this research, they did not fund this research directly,’ they said.

This left them with no obligation to report the research to the agency, they added.

Again, I say BULLSHIT. Has no one learned anything these last 2 1/2 years?? A freaking virus was unleashed upon the world because people were playing with fire. Yet we are now supposed to just nod along and say ‘nothing to see here, move along’ with researchers playing games with all our lives? I say NO.

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Feature Photo Credit: SARS-CoV-2 under electron microscope. NIAID/flickr/cropped/CC BY-2.0.