Fake News: Boston biolab did NOT create dangerous new Covid-virus with gain-of-function research
25 October 2022
12:04
Social media posts shared tens of thousands of times claim researchers at Boston University have created a new, more deadly variant of the coronavirus. But the university’s scientists say this is a misinterpretation of their study, which was released ahead of peer review — and independent experts told AFP the research did not lead to a more dangerous virus.
“The news reports pulled one line from the paper’s abstract out of context,” said Ronald Corley, director of the BU National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL), in an October 17 post on the university’s website.
The social media claims focus on the fact that while Omicron caused mild, non-fatal infections in the mice, the virus created for the study killed 8 in 10 of them.
BU said: “That 80 percent number is what the media reports latched onto, misrepresenting the study and its goals.”
The university said the virus created with the Omicron spike was not more deadly than the Washington SARS-CoV-2 strain. In fact, “this research made the virus replicate less dangerous,” BU said in its statement.
