And who, precisely, thought this was a good idea?

 

As if we don't have enough to worry about, we learn:

In a Wuhan-esque study, Chinese scientists are experimenting with a mutant COVID-19 strain that is 100% lethal to “humanized” mice.

. . .

The deadly virus is a mutated version of GX/2017, a coronavirus cousin that was reportedly discovered in Malaysian pangolins in 2017 — three years before the pandemic. Pangolins, also called scaly anteaters, are mammals found in warm areas of the planet.

All the mice that were infected with the virus died within just eight days, which researchers noted was a “surprisingly” rapid death rate.

. . .

Although terrifying, the study is the first of its kind to report a 100% mortality rate in mice infected by the COVID-19-related virus — far surpassing previously reported results from another study, the researchers wrote.

. . .

Francois Balloux, an epidemiology expert at University College London’s Genetics Institute, slammed the research 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 wrote on X.

There's more at the link.

I can see three possibilities here:

1. Researchers thought it would be a good idea for whatever reason, and went ahead and did it without even thinking about asking permission, ethical questions, etc.
2. This research was actually authorized, for some unknown reason, and the news of its "success" was released so as to reflect credit on those who authorized it.
3. This is intended to scare people, and establish China in the world's eyes as the foremost developer of biological weapons.

If you can see any other reason for doing this, let us know in Comments.

All I can say is, unless there's a solid medical reason for doing such research, it should never be conducted at all.  In this case, I can't see any such reason.  Taking a pangolin virus, that can't affect humans, and adapting it to mice (and, through them, humans), seems utterly illogical on the face of it.  What possible purpose could this serve?  And why try to synthesize what appears to be a more concentrated, more lethal COVID-19 virus when we've already got enough problems with the first one?

Conspiracy theorists have been claiming for years that COVID-19 was actually a plan to reduce the human race's numbers by billions of people for environmental and other reasons.  This sort of "research" can do nothing to comfort them - in fact, it'll make them even more paranoid than they already are.

*Sigh*

Peter