The university behind a deadly SARS-CoV-2 hybrid claims it didn’t have to gain clearance from the authorities
The Boston University researchers who developed an unusually deadly strain of the virus that causes Covid-19 did not clear their endeavor with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the agency claimed on Monday, announcing it would be seeking answers as to why it only learned of the experiment through media reports.
The original grant application did not specify that the work might involve gain-of-function-type research, NIAID microbiology and infectious diseases division director Emily Erbelding told STAT News, adding that none of the group’s progress reports mention this crucial detail. NIAID and its parent agency the National Institutes of Health partially funded the study.
Despite multiple NIAID and NIH grants listed in the preprint paper, however, director Ronald Corley of Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories insisted on Tuesday that the school had paid for the research on its own. Corley argued the federal funding had merely gone toward developing a system that would later be used in the controversial work. Besides, he said, the work didn’t qualify as gain of function because the resulting strain had only killed 80% of the infected mice, while the original Wuhan strain of the virus had killed 100% of the mice it was tested on.
READ MORE: US scientists create new lethal Covid variant
The researchers had created a hybrid of the original Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2 with the spike protein from the less-severe Omicron in an effort to discover whether the latter’s spike mutations were responsible for the milder illness experienced by those infected.
A gain-of-function experiment gone awry remains one of the main theories to explain the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in 2019, along with the theory that it originated from a bat at a Wuhan livestock market. However, there still has not been any investigation that would either confirm or deny any of the theories.
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US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is preparing to leave the Trump administration after what a new report has described as months of tension with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, potentially triggering another change at the army’s top echelons.
According to the Friday report by The Wall Street Journal, Driscoll is expected to step down before the end of the year and could leave his post earlier. The newspaper cited people familiar with discussions over his departure.
The Journal reported that Driscoll and his family vacated the official residence assigned to the army secretary at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall this summer, a move that could indicate he was preparing to leave the position.
The reported departure would come at a time of continuing uncertainty at the top echelons of the army.
Hegseth abruptly removed Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in April, while Trump has not yet nominated a permanent successo....more below
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The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warns the enemies that any act of aggression against the Islamic Republic will not go unanswered.
In a statement on Thursday, the IRGC issued a “stern warning” to the enemies after US forces launched strikes against the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
Following the US military attack on a point on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas Airport with aerial projectiles, the IRGC carried out new strikes targeting the US air base from which the attack originated in the wee hours of Thursday, it added.
“This response is a serious warning to the enemy that they should know the act of aggression will not go unanswered,” the IRGC emphasized.
The elite military force warned of a “more decisive” response if the enemy repeated any act of aggression.
It also said the responsibility for the consequences of any IRGC response lies with the aggressor.
The statement comes after the IRGC Navy on Thursday forced an American tanker to turn back. The tanker ...
