Scientists Deny Making Deadly Horror COVID in a Lab

Boston University researchers insist that they made a hybrid strain of COVID-19 that is less deadly than previous versions.

Over the past week, a pre-print study out of BU's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, which sought to detail the differences between the original COVID and Omicron strains, unleashed a media frenzy.

The researchers were accused of not clearing the study with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases before they paid for it.

According to a statement from the university, The Daily Mail made a false claim about scientists creating a new deadly COVID strain.

Fox News picked up the story after it was published by the Daily Mail, which claimed that the NEIDL researchers had made a "deadly COVID strain with an 80 percent kill rate."

Ronald B. Corley, NEIDL's director, said that they misrepresented the study and its goals.

Two academics who were not involved in the research were quoted by the Daily Mail as saying that the school was doing "gain of function" research, which is when scientists manipulate viruses to make them stronger.

This type of research is thought to be at the center of COVID's origin, according to the report.

"This research is not gain-of-function research, meaning it did not amplify the Washington state SARS-coV-2 virus strain or make it more dangerous," the statement reads. The research made the viruses less dangerous.

The "80 percent kill rate" figure was misrepresented in the Mail's reporting, Corley said.

80% to 100 percent of the mice that were exposed to the model were doomed to disease from the original strain, according to the director. There is a very mild disease in these animals.

With most cycles of misinformation, the Daily Mail's readers won't dig their own graves.

It's a dangerous game that supports publications.

The head of the FDA says misinformation is the leading cause of death.