Lab-made COVID-19 hybrid sparks controversy

Boston University scientists have created a hybrid version of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Their experiments sparked controversy, with heated headlines claiming that the researchers made the virus more lethal and university officials denouncing these claims as "false and inaccurate."
The new omicron spike-carrying virus — built by attaching the spike protein from an omicron version of the virus to the original SARS-CoV-2 virus — killed 80% of lab mice infected with it, making it more severe than the original omicron variant which didn’t kill any infected mice. Yet the hybrid virus was still less deadly than the original Wuhan variant of the virus, which killed 100% of infected lab mice.