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Research finds Covid variant with 100% mortality in ACE2-transgenic mice
- ren_engineer 3y agoshould be noted this research was done at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, which means researchers were messing around with this virus in a non BSL-4 lab. Pretty much every expert opinion I've seen online says this research is insane and provides no value for the risk involved
- infotainment 3y agoChina's really excited to get the next pandemic going already; that'll fix their economy for sure!
- sand500 3y agoRisks of this virus getting out aside, it would be invaluable to study and understand how a 100% lethal variant works. Even just knowing there exists a 100% lethal variant let's us be prepared in case one shows up from random mutations.
- jakderrida 3y agoWouldn't there be a natural tradeoff between how contagious it is and how deadly it is, though?? A virus that quickly kills all the hosts would probably not spread very far. I feel like if there could exist one in nature, no species would last very long.
- rngname22 3y agoWe have arms control and embargoes to prevent Iran from gaining fissile material but we don't give a fuck when nations that have proven themselves capable of regulating their biomedical research safety pursue reckless gain of function research. Makes total sense.
- castles 3y agoIf it were a weaker country? You can imagine the response might be different?
- frank_bb 3y ago[dead]
- toomuchtodo 3y agoHow would you defend against such a variant without access to the sequence?
- countWSS 3y agohttps://www.snopes.com/news/2024/01/18/chinese-mutant-covid-19/ https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/01/18/chinese-mutant-covid-... Snopes: they didn't mutate the virus it mutated on its own in cell culture. And its 100% lethal based on 4 out of 12 mice, the same 4 of which were "humanazed ACE2 mice".