Gain-of-Function Research to Make a Covid Virus with Teeth? Maybe Not By Chris Knight (Florida)
The report by the Daily Mail.co.uk, has generated considerable anxiety about the possibility of an “accidental” lab release of the new, so-called lethal version of Covid, which killed 80 percent of mice in a study. That sounds very bad, but it cannot be assumed that the same would happen to humans, especially unvaxxed individuals, who have by now been exposed to multiple Covid variants, and suffered through it, fortifying their immune systems. Boston University took a different approach, saying that the media had sensationalised and misrepresented the research, as there was no gain-of-function research, and the strain of mice used were very susceptible to Covid. Agreed; but that being said, this is only the tip of the iceberg of viral research across the world, and the broad issue remains. The solution is greater public awareness, but that is not possible if people put their heads in the sand, and shy away from thinking about these things, even if it might hurt the brain a wee bit.
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/neidl-researchers-refute-uk-article-about-covid-strain/
“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.
Professor Shmuel Shapira, a leading scientist in the Israeli Government, said: 'This should be totally forbidden, it's playing with fire.'
Gain of function research - when viruses are purposefully manipulated to be more infectious or deadly - is thought to be at the center of Covid's origin.
A Chinese laboratory located just miles from the first cluster of cases carried out similar research on bat coronaviruses.
But the practice has been largely restricted in the US since 2017.
Dr Richard Ebright, a chemist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, told DailyMail.com that: 'The research is a clear example of gain of function research.
He added: 'If we are to avoid a next lab-generated pandemic, it is imperative that oversight of enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research be strengthened.'
In the new research, which has not been peer-reviewed, a team of researchers from Boston and Florida extracted Omicron's spike protein — the unique structure that binds to and invades human cells.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 in the virus but has become more evolved over time. Omicron has dozens of mutations on its spike protein that made it so infectious.
Researchers attached Omicron's spike to the original wildtype strain that first emerged in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic.”
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.13.512134v1.full.pdf
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