China has been experimenting with a new lethal Covid-like virus that is 100% fatal to mice and may impact people if a report circulating on a database of pre-peer-reviewed journal publications is to be believed.
According to a report published on the bioRxiv website on January 3, physicians with training from the military in China created their own strain of the “pangolin coronavirus” and tested it on mice to see what would happen.
“Four mice inoculated with inactivated virus and four mock-infected mice were used as controls. Surprisingly, all the mice that were infected with the live virus succumbed to the infection within 7-8 days post-inoculation,” the paper said.
Brain infection-related deaths
Within five days of infection, the four mice administered the virus experienced weight loss, according to experts. The mice’s eyes turned white and they began to act lethargic on the seventh day.
“In the mice infected with live virus, the viral load in the lungs significantly decreased by day 6; both the viral RNA loads and viral titers in the brain samples were relatively low on day 3, but substantially increased by day 6. This finding suggested that severe brain infection during the later stages of infection may be the key cause of death in these mice,” the paper further said.
According to researchers, late brain infection may have contributed to the death.
In addition to infecting the mice’s bodies, the virus also made its way to vital organs like the brain, eyes, and lungs.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report showing that a SARS-CoV-2-related pangolin coronavirus can cause 100% mortality in hACE2 mice, suggesting a risk for GX_P2V to spill over into humans,” the investigators stated.
China alerts people to a possible Covid revival
Chinese officials issued a warning on Sunday over the possibility of a Covid comeback this month, fueled by the JN.1 subvariant. The National Health Commission (NHC) noted that JN.1 was becoming more widespread and predicted that a number of respiratory illnesses would likely spread during the upcoming winter and spring.
“Influenza viruses are expected to remain the dominant pathogen,” Wang Dayan, head of the Chinese National Influenza Center, told reporters.
He ascribed the increase in JN.1 to a number of causes, such as imported cases, decreased influenza rates, and declining population immunity.