Boston University researchers claim to have developed new, more lethal COVID strain in lab

Researchers at Boston University say they have developed a new COVID strain that has an 80% kill rate following a series of similar experiments first thought to have started the global pandemic that began in China. 

The variant, a combination of Omicron and the original virus in Wuhan, killed 80% of the mice infected with it, the university said. When mice were only exposed to Omicron, they experienced mild symptoms.

The research was conducted by a team of scientists from Florida and Boston at the school's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. 

They extracted the spike...