GOP Lawmakers Seek Answers on Boston University’s ‘Potentially Risky’ COVID-19 Experiments on Mice

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) speaks at a House Republican press conference on energy policy at the U.S. Capitol on March 8, 2022. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are seeking answers from Boston University over its “potentially risky gain-of-function research with coronaviruses.”

Researchers with the university said in a preprint paper first released on Oct. 14 that they had created a new strain of COVID-19 by combining the Omicron variant’s spike protein and the original Wuhan strain of COVID-19 variant. Dubbed Omicron-S, the lab-made hybrid killed 80 percent of mice infected with it.