The authors of the study which was shared last week out of Beijing stated: "This underscores a spillover risk of GX_P2V into humans and provides a unique model for understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses."
The Chinese scientists mutated GX/2017, a cousin of coronavirus that was discovered in pangolins in Malaysia 3 years before the pandemic, to produce the lethal virus.
The eyes of the test mice reportedly turned completely white a day before their death, accompanied by vast weight loss, hunched posture, and sluggish behavior. Upon analysis, the lab found that the virus had infected the lungs, bones, eyes, tracheas, and brains of the deceased mice.
The study, which is the first to report a 100% mortality rate in mice infected by a Covid-like virus, has been highly scrutinized since its release.
Epidemiology expert Francois Balloux branded it as "terrible" and "scientifically totally pointless."
"I can see nothing of vague interest that could be learned from force-infecting a weird breed of humanized mice with a random virus. Conversely, I could see how much stuff might go wrong," the professor at University College London’s Genetics Institute wrote on X.
"The preprint does not specify the biosafety level and biosafety precautions used for the research," he continued.
"The absence of this information raises the concerning possibility that part or all of this research, like the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, recklessly was performed without the minimal biosafety containment and practices essential for research with potential pandemic pathogens."
Retired professor of medicine at Stanford Dr. Gennadi Glinsky wrote: "This madness must be stopped before too late."
