https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/10/17/boston-university-covid-researchers-combine-omicron-spike-protein-with-original-virus-test-strain-on-mice/ So.... Thoughts? 6.5 million deaths to date have been attributed to the 'vid. There are 'some theories' out there that the original bug may not have been wild caught. Labs leak. Me? I do not know. I'm thinking that research IS NECESSARY but perhaps you don't brag about it. Boston IS "only" about half the size Wuhan.......but there might be better places.
BU, not BC. i read that this is much less lethal than the delta, and they are trying to understand the virus for future problems
Note that the original, ancestral, unaltered virus had 100% lethality in these test subjects (mice), so this research produced a less-lethal variant. Loss of function, not gain. Though the BA.1 variant itself produced 0% lethality in these mice.
I might quibble that gain of function here refers to spike 'protein decorations' that allow it to evade antibodies. That was a gain in the mentioned research. How well virus reproduces itself in tissues is gain integrated at a higher level. Lethality is a mistake or overshoot by virus. Or mistake or overshoot in the infected animal immune system. At least that is how I describe medical views on viruses.
