An outbreak of SADS-CoV hit a pig farm in Guangdong, Chinain 2016, which led to the death of several piglets. The virus has since been detected on pig farms in five provinces in southern and central China, according to a research paper published in November in the Journal of Virology.
Their work, supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key R&D Program of China, showed that viruses containing the bat SADSr-CoV S protein have the potential to spread to humans and animals.
Dr. Jessica Rose, who qualified as a B.Sc. in applied mathematics, an M.Sc. in immunology and a PhD in computational biology, accused those developing chimeric viruses of completely losing the plot.
In a post on her blog, Unacceptable Jessicashe wrote, “They are trying to rationalize and outpace Mother Nature regarding viral recombination events.
“In doing so, they risk creating much deadlier viruses that might never have emerged without their tinkering. [which] could [have] potentially devastating consequences.”
She accused the “hubristic” researchers of developing “frankenviruses” that have the potential to cause a “human diarrhea fest.”
Dr. Rose said that as a microbiologist she understood the value of monitoring the potential spread of viruses, but that there was “mere danger” in creating new viruses that could lead to an actual pandemic in humans.
She added: “These new viruses that didn’t exist before they created them… have the potential to kill people through explosive diarrhea if something goes wrong… Could their work in developing these frankenviruses potentially lead to deadly explosive diarrhea in humans?”
The scientist called for an end to so-called Gain of Function (GOF) research, which changes an organism’s genes in an attempt to improve the functioning of biochemical materials.
GOF research, also called “dual-use” research, involves experimenting with viruses and other pathogens that have the potential to cause a pandemic. Such research could reveal how infectious agents might become more transmissible or make people sicker.
But the area is also controversial because some fear scientists risk creating a more dangerous microorganism that could escape from a laboratory and cause a pandemic.
Some believe this is how the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed millions of lives around the world, started.
Study co-author Yun Luo, from Guangzhou Medical University, has been contacted for comment.
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