CBS News reported that Boston University has been testing strains of the COVID virus they created by combining the ancestral and Omicron variants. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) partially funded the school research but these funds were not directly used to wards this research. and they were rather miffed to find out about this research through news articles. Federal health authorities say they are looking into whether the scientists should have sought their permission before undertaking the possible “gain of function” research. Such research being done in Wuhan back in 2019 could have potentially started the pandemic to begin with.
Scientist were looking into the Omicron variants spike proteins Mice were infected with combined versions of the virus creating a new variant of the virus. Hey what could go wrong, right? Boston University said it was under no obligations to report this gain of function research to the NIH.
100% of the mice infected with the original Wuhan strain of the virus died. When mice were infected with the recombinant strains created by researchers 80% of the mice died. What joy it must have brought researches to find they had created a strain with an 80% mortality rate.
“It is concerning that this research – like the research in Wuhan that may have caused the pandemic – was not identified by the funding agency as possible enhanced potential pandemic pathogens (ePPP) research,” Rutgers University Professor Richard Ebright wrote on Twitter.