Boston University lab faces questions over killer Covid research

A new virus with an 80 per cent fatality rate, made in a Boston Uni lab combining the original strain of Sars-Cov2 with Omicron, prompts a probe.

Boston University has attracted a firestorm of criticism after it emerged some of its scientists had combined the original strain of Sars-Cov2 and the more recent Omicron variant to create a new virus that killed 80 per cent of mice. Picture: iStock

A new virus with 80 per cent fatality rate, manufactured in a Boston University lab using elements of Sars-Cov2, has prompted a US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases investigation over whether the controversial research occurred within government guidelines.

Boston University attracted a firestorm of criticism on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) after it emerged some of its scientists had combined the original strain of Sars-Cov2 and the more recent Omicron variant to create a new virus that killed 80 per cent of mice.

“In mice, while Omicron causes mild, non-fatal infection, the Omicron S-carrying virus inflicts severe disease with a mortality rate of 80 per cent,” the research paper, which had not been peer reviewed, stated.

When the mice were exposed to the standard Omicron strain, all survived although some exhibited mild symptoms.

Boston University scientists were investigating the relationship between lethality and infectiousness of the various strains of Sars-Cov2 which have fuelled the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I think we’re going to have conversations over upcoming days,” Emily Erbelding, a NIAID director, said in a statement to STAT News on Monday, suggesting the NIAID had not been appropriately informed of the research.

Boston University in a statement denied it had any obligation to report to the NIAID and said it had “fulfilled all regulatory obligations and protocols” and that “there was no gain of function with this research”.

“The animal model that was used was a particular type of mouse that is highly susceptible, and 80 to 100 per cent of the infected mice succumb to disease from the original strain, the so-called Washington strain,” said professor Ronald Corley, a microbiologist at Boston University in a statement on the university’s website.

Richard Ebright, a professor of Chemistry at Rutgers University, however, said the research did meet the definition of “gain of function” and the university’s defence was “demonstrably false and should be deeply embarrassing”.

Allegations of potentially dangerous “gain of function research”, where scientists enhance or create new viruses, come at a sensitive time for the NIAID, whose director Anthony Fauci, the public face of the US response to Covid-19, had repeatedly denied US government funding gain of function research in China or the US.

Chief Medical Adviser to the president Dr Anthony Fauci, who has helmed the United States' response to infectious disease outbreaks since the 1980s, will retire by the end of President Joe Biden's current term.

While scientists debate the origin of Sars-Cov2, the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed over six million people, many argue an accidental leak from a research lab in Wuhan, China in late 2019 is the most likely explanation.

Republicans have promised to compel Dr Fauci to appear before congress to answer questions about his role in gain of function research during his almost 40-year tenure as director of the NIAID, should the GOP win control of either chamber in next month’s US midterm elections.

Republican Senator Roger Marshall, from Kansas, said on social media the research should “stop immediately”.

“It is unconscionable that NIH sponsors this lethal gain of function virus research through Boston University and EcoHealth Alliance in densely populated areas, creating potential to kill more people than any singular nuclear weapon,” he added, referring to a US company allegedly connected to gain of function research in Wuhan.

An Israeli Government scientist said the Boston University research should “should be totally forbidden, it’s playing with fire”.

Boston University scientists were investigating the relationship between lethality and infectiousness of the various strains of Sars-Cov2 which have fuelled the Covid-19 pandemic, almost into its third year.

Professor Shmuel Shapira, an Israeli Government scientist said the Boston University research, first revealed by the Daily Mail, should “should be totally forbidden, it’s playing with fire”.

The latest gain of function controversy came as Stanford epidemiologist John Ioannidis released a new study that found the lethality of the original strain of Covid-19 had a “much lower pre-vaccination Infection fatality rate in non-elderly populations than previously suggested”, of around 0.035 per cent.