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Researchers have witnessed two viruses – influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus – fuse together to form a single, hybrid virus. While competition between viruses has been researched in some detail, this new finding provides researchers with an unusual example of one virus coopting another for its own benefits. "This kind of hybrid virus has never been described before," virologist and senior author Pablo Murcia told The Guardian. "We are talking about viruses from two completely different families combining together with the genomes and the external proteins of both viruses. It is a new type of virus pathogen." The hybrid...

British scientists have reportedly deliberately created deadly hybrid Covid strains in a university lab in London. Twenty scientists at the Imperial College in London infected hamsters with mutant viruses including strains of the original coronavirus and parts of Omicron or Delta, according to the Daily Mail. One of the scientists involved in the experiment is a member of the British government’s SAGE advisory panel. Imperial College maintains the tax-payer-funded study was safe and that scientists adhered to British regulations while conducting the trial and denies that the work constitutes gain of function. Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biology expert at...

US researchers have developed a new lethal Covid strain in a laboratory – echoing the type of experiments many fear started the pandemic. The mutant variant — which is a hybrid of Omicron and the original Wuhan virus — killed 80 percent of mice infected with it at Boston University. When a similar group of rodents were exposed to the standard Omicron strain, however, they all survived and only experienced 'mild' symptoms.

During the last two months, as the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has spiraled into a global threat, countries around the world have scrambled to impose travel bans, quarantine millions, and isolate sick people in an attempt to stop the spread of the new virus. Yet, as of Sunday, there were 78,000 cases of Covid-19 in at least 29 countries, including surging case tolls in Italy, Iran, and South Korea, as well as an ongoing outbreak on a cruise ship off Japan. The likelihood that we’re hurtling into a pandemic — a new disease that spreads around the world — or that...

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities Thursday moved to lock down three cities that are home to more than 18 million people in an unprecedented effort to contain the deadly new virus that has sickened hundreds and spread to other parts of the world during the busy Lunar New Year travel period. Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded Wuhan’s train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances at 10 a.m. Only travelers holding tickets for the last trains out were allowed to enter. Normally bustling streets, shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces in the city of 11 million people were...

Three patients escaped from quarantine in the city of Mbandaka in north western Democratic Republic of Congo. Two of the three have been found dead, while a third patient has been found alive. Medecins Sans Frontieres' (MSF) mission in the city confirmed the incident as they work to treat cases of Ebola. The death toll of the outbreak has reached 27 as health chiefs crackdown on the virus. World Health Organisation bosses have previously warned spread in the city could mean a repeat of the 2014 outbreak – which killed over 11,000. … WHO have shipped more than 8,600 vaccines...

<p>ATLANTA — All 50 states have been struck by the flu (search), nearly double the number since last week, officials said Thursday, as the rapidly spreading virus caused more schools to close and a scramble for shots across the country.</p> <p>The flu season doesn't typically peak until February, but 24 states have already been hit hard and at least 11 people have died in the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (search) said Thursday.</p>