Chinese researchers have been warned to stop experimenting with a new Covid-19 strain that has a 100 percent kill rate in “humanised mice” over fears it may lead to another pandemic.
Scientists based in Beijing, who are linked to the Chinese military, cloned a Covid-like virus found in pangolins and used it to infect mice that had been engineered to reflect similar genetic makeup as humans.
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The deadly virus, known as GX_P2V.
MSN reports: Researchers noted a “surprisingly” rapid death rate after all the mice infected died within just eight days.
In the days before their deaths, the mice had quickly lost weight, exhibited a hunched posture and moved extremely sluggishly.
Most eerie of all, their eyes turned completely white the day before they died.
But experts have warned against the “recklessly” conducted study.
Francois Balloux, an epidemiology expert at the University College London’s Genetics Institute, warned the research is “terrible” and “scientifically totally pointless.”
He wrote on X: “I can see nothing of vague interest that could be learned from force-infecting a weird breed of humanised mice with a random virus. Conversely, I could see how such stuff might go wrong.”
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