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Techjunkie81 t1_iss32sb wrote

Reply to comment by jasonm2128 in Boston University researchers claim to have developed new, more lethal COVID strain in lab - Researchers at Boston University added a spike protein from the Omicron variant with the original Wuhan strain, which has an 80% kill rate (in certain mice) by izumi3682

Not a scientist here but why would they use a particular type of mouse that is highly susceptible to the virus?

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jasonm2128 t1_iss3ckx wrote

Not a scientist either, but my guess is they wanted truly compare the viruses. Knowing the mice are susceptible it eliminates the possibility that they didn’t catch it in the experiment to see how the virus impacts the whole group for an accurate result.

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PedalingHertz t1_iss3ta4 wrote

A more sensitive test instrument gives a better measure of results. The fact that these are living, emotional creatures sadly doesn’t factor.

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Gibbonici t1_iss4gua wrote

So the susceptibility to the modified virus can be measured more easily and probably more accurately too.

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