A recent headline that has been making its way around the internet and social media with some slight variations is that “Scientists engineer strain of Covid-19 with an 80% kill rate”.
A lab out of Boston University in the United States has spliced an original strain of Covid-19 with the spike protein of one of the recent mutations of the omicron strain.
When tested in mice that were engineered to be more susceptible to the COVID-19 virus 8 out of 10 mice died.
An alarming result on face value but actually weaker than the 100% kill rate in mice of the early strain which was reportedly taken from a sample of one of the original strains of the virus.
Comparatively, when mice were infected with the weaker Omicron variant they fell ill but none died as a result.
It is important to remember that the mice themselves were actually bred to be more susceptible to COVID-19 with lungs that are far more receptive to infection from COVID.
The scientists claim their work is focused on finding whether the mutations in spike protein of the Omicron variants is the reason why those variants are weaker, which leads to fewer fatalities, but also evades immunity more easily.
Boston University points out that the experiment didn’t make the original Covid-19 strain more dangerous as was often spread via social media and some traditional media outlets.
In a statement, they said: “It did not amplify the Washington state SARS-COV-2 virus strain (original virus from 2020) or make it more dangerous.
“In fact, this research made the virus replicate less dangerous.” the statement said.
Read more here: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/oct/20/instagram-posts/claim-boston-university-created-covid-19-strain-80/
It doesn’t matter the outcome of the research, nor the scientists’ intentions, what matters is that they produced a new virus. It’s not worth the risk of creating extremely deadly viruses because people make mistakes and leaks are possible.
OK we believe you. Also the vaccine has a 95% efficacy rate. The original virus came from a bat and there was no engineering in the lab.
People don’t need to be wearing masks in a Pandemic it only gives a false sense of security, no wait we just said that so people wouldn’t buy all the masks and leave medical professionals without. Actually you do need to wear masks and we are going to make that clear by mandating it.
Also since the vaccine is so effective we are going to mandate it also. But wait actually the vaccine only prevents you from dieing from the virus, it doesn’t prevent the spread. But we are still going to mandate it just because we can.
And going out to exercise is not “essential” even though obesity and other health conditions related to diet and lack of exercise are co-morbidities of the virus.
We totally believe the fact-checkers in everything they say because they are always correct
Stop messing around, simple!