Boston University is refuting a series of claims about research at the university’s National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories (NEIDL) to develop a new COVID stain. The report, which first appeared in the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail on Monday, claimed that the lab’s researchers had “created a new deadly COVID strain.” However, the claims made by the Daily Mail have now been refuted by university experts in an official statement, which revealed that the news reports and claims were “false and false”.
The university also noted that the research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC), which includes scientists as well as members of the local community, and the Boston Public Health Commission approved the research. Was.
“They have sensationalized the message, they completely misrepresent the study and its goals,” said Ronald B. Corley, director of NEIDL and president of the BU Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, say news reports.
According to DailyMail.com, a team of scientists from Boston University claimed to have created a hybrid virus by combining Omicron and the original Wuhan strain, which killed 80 percent of mice in one study.
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The study set out to examine the spike protein on the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron type (BA.1). The researchers were interested in comparing the variant to the original virus strain, known as the Washington strain. They wanted to find out whether the virus was actually less virulent, Corley says, “simply because it wasn’t infecting the same cells as the initial strain.” They were “interested in what part of the virus predicts how severe disease a person will get.”
BU is denying a series of false media claims about research at its National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories. In a statement, the university called the reporting “false and inaccurate.”
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But Corley says the news reports took a line out of context from the paper’s abstract, with the Daily Mail suggesting in its headline that the researchers had created a “deadly Covid strain with an 80 percent murder rate.” The newspaper made a series of other misleading claims, including that the study was a “gain of work research”, accusing the researchers of creating a more deadly virus.
Not true, Corley says. And the statement of the university vehemently refuted this.
“We wish to address false and inaccurate reporting regarding Boston University COVID-19 research, which appeared in the Daily Mail today,” BU said in a statement. “First of all, this is not a benefit of research work, which means it did not increase the Washington State SARS-CoV-2 virus strain or make it more dangerous. In fact, this research made virus replication less dangerous.”
Corley says the line, drawn out of context, actually had nothing to do with the virus’ effect on humans. The study began in a tissue culture, then moved to an animal model.
“The animal model that was used was a particular type of mouse that is susceptible, and 80 to 100 percent of infected mice contract the disease from the original strain, the so-called Washington strain,” Corley says. “Whereas Omicron causes very mild disease in these animals.”
That’s the 80 percent number that media reports got caught up in misrepresenting the study and its goals.
“This was a statement taken out of context for sensationalist purposes,” Corley says, “and it not only completely misrepresents the findings, but [also] Objectives of the study.”
In fact, according to BU’s statement, “this research reflects and reinforces the findings of other similar research conducted by other organizations, including the FDA.” This is supported by NEIDL investigator Mohsan Saeed, one of the study’s lead researchers.
“Consistent with studies published by others, this work shows that it is not the spike protein that drives omicron pathogenicity, but instead other viral proteins,” says Sayed, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the BU Chobanian and Evadisian School of Medicine. “Determining those proteins will lead to better diagnosis and disease management strategies.”
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