Scientists from Boston University have been condemned for ‘playing with fire’ after it emerged they had created a lethal new Covid strain in a laboratory, DailyMail reports.

The British media outlet revealed the team had made a hybrid virus — combining Omicron and the original Wuhan strain — that killed 80 percent of mice in a study.

The revelation exposes how dangerous virus manipulation research continues to go on even in the US, despite fears similar practices may have started the pandemic.

Professor Shmuel Shapira, a leading scientist in the Israeli Government, said: ‘This should be totally forbidden, it’s playing with fire.’

Gain of function research – when viruses are purposefully manipulated to be more infectious or deadly – is thought to be at the center of Covid’s origin.

A Chinese laboratory located just miles from the first cluster of cases carried out similar research on bat coronaviruses.

But the practice has been largely restricted in the US since 2017.

more at dailymail.co.uk