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should be noted this research was done at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, which means researchers were messing around with this virus in a non BSL-4 lab. Pretty much every expert opinion I've seen online says this research is insane and provides no value for the risk involved

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China's really excited to get the next pandemic going already; that'll fix their economy for sure!

Risks of this virus getting out aside, it would be invaluable to study and understand how a 100% lethal variant works. Even just knowing there exists a 100% lethal variant let's us be prepared in case one shows up from random mutations.

Wouldn't there be a natural tradeoff between how contagious it is and how deadly it is, though??

A virus that quickly kills all the hosts would probably not spread very far.

I feel like if there could exist one in nature, no species would last very long.

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