Chinese scientists have created a deadly virus that is a mutated version of COVID-19. The research was conducted on "humanized" mice, whose brains have a similar genetic makeup to humans. This and the reaction of scientists were reported by the New York Post, UNN reports .
Details
The deadly virus is a mutated version of GX/2017, a cousin of the coronavirus that was reportedly discovered in Malaysian pangolins in 2017 - three years before the pandemic. All transgenic mice that were infected died within just eight days.
This infection led to 100% mortality of hACE2 mice. We hypothesize that the cause of death may be related to the occurrence of late brain infection... On the seventh day after infection, the mice showed symptoms such as piloerection, hunched posture and sluggish movements, and their eyes turned white.
Chinese scientists say that these experiments provide a unique perspective on the pathogenicity of the GX_P2V coronavirus and offer a clear alternative model for understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses.
However, the scientific community did not appreciate the importance of the study. François Ballou, an epidemiology expert at the Institute of Genetics at University College London, called the study "appalling" and "absolutely meaningless from a scientific point of view.
"I've seen how these things can go wrong..." he wrote in X.
The scientist also pointed out that the preprint does not indicate the level of biosafety and precautions used in the study.
The absence of this information raises concerns that some or all of this research, like the 2016-2019 Wuhan study that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, was recklessly conducted without the minimum biosafety conditions and practices required for research with potential pandemic pathogens.