OAN's Avril Elfie
3:27 PM – Wednesday, January 17, 2024
A research group in Beijing, China, is reportedly experimenting with a new strain of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in humanized mice, which is said to have a 100% mortality rate.
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The study involved researchers from Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Nanjing University.
According to researcha deadly virus called GX_P2V attacked the brains of mice that had been engineered to reflect a genetic makeup similar to humans.
“This highlights the risk of GX_P2V spillover to humans and provides a unique model for understanding the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses,” the authors wrote.
The deadly virus is said to be a mutated version of GX/2017, a coronavirus strand discovered in Malaysian pangolins in 2017 and also found in mammals found in warmer regions.
The study said all the mice died in just eight days, which researchers described as “surprisingly fast.”
The virus reportedly infected the humanized mice's bones, eyes, and lungs, as well as their tracheas and brains. Before dying, the mice lost a lot of weight, developed a hunched posture, became “sluggish,” and eventually turned white.
However, research results do not fully indicate how it affects humans.
Francois Ballou, an epidemiology expert at University College London's Institute of Genetics, called the study “terrible” and “scientifically meaningless.”
“There's nothing vaguely intriguing that you get by force-infecting a strange breed of humanized mice with a random virus. On the contrary, it shows you how many things can go wrong,” the professor said. Told. “The preprints do not specify the biosafety levels and biosafety precautions used in the study, and the absence of this information has led to “This raises the alarming possibility that some or all of this work may have caused COVID-19.” It was carried out recklessly and without minimum biosafety containment and practices. ”
China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, the center of lab leak claims surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, does not appear to be connected to the 2024 study.
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