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  • Writer's pictureJulie Collorafi

LungOnly Mice: Precision Test Models for the COVID Vaccine

Updated: Nov 9, 2021

The SARS-CoV2 pathogen was made transmissible to humans by Ralph Baric and his collaborators at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in their 2015 experiment (Menachery et al.) using mice humanized with fetal clone serum, a synthetic hormone derived from human fetal tissue as explained by Dr. Kathleen Ruddy in her video.


In 2019, Ralph Baric and his UNC team of researchers developed two precision mouse models on which to test vaccines specifically for the treatment of coronavirus, Zika virus and other respiratory viruses.


Their scientific study, entitled "Precision mouse models with expanded tropism for human pathogens," was published on the NIH website.


The purpose of the study was to implant fetal human lung tissue on immunodeficient mice, resulting in the development of a highly vascularized human lung organoid. The two models are lung-only mice (LoM) and bone marrow/liver/thymus-lung (BLT-L) humanized mice.



In the Main section of the study, the authors state:

In summary, implantation of human lung tissue into the back of immunodeficient mice results in the development of well-defined, well-vascularized and easily accessible human lung implants with structures that resemble those present in human lung tissue and that are composed almost entirely of human cells.

In other words, the mice have pieces of aborted baby lung tissue implanted on their backs. These are not functional lungs and are called lung organoids and are used to test the effectiveness of vaccines and other medications.


The humanized Lung Only mice (LOM) were constructed by surgically implanting two small pieces of human fetal lung tissue onto separate sites on the back of immunodeficient mice.


Screenshot of the first part of the section entitled, "Generation of humanized mice":


The LungOnly model was made using human fetal tissue from the infamous Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), whom Judicial Watch and has exposed as an organ trafficking partner with Planned Parenthood.


It is important to point out that the engineering of the BLT-L mice involves the use of more fetal tissue than the LoM mice:


From the section of the study entitled, "Generation of humanized mice":


BLT-L mice were constructed by implanting a sandwich of human fetal thymus-liver-thymus tissue (Advanced Bioscience Resources) under the kidney capsule of irradiated (200 rad) 10–15-week-old male and female NSG mice. Two pieces of autologous human lung tissue (~2–4 mm3) were implanted subcutaneously into the right and left back. Following tissue implantation, animals received a bone marrow transplant (via tail-vein injection) of autologous liver-derived human CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells. (Emphasis added.)

Did the reader catch the gruesome insider joke in that excerpt? "BLT" mice are made by implanting a "sandwich" of human fetal thymus-liver-thymus and injecting a fetal-derived bone marrow transplant. A BLT sandwich.


Please note also that the human fetal thymus and liver were obtained from the Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR).


A graphic from the study illustrating how the mice models are engineered with human fetal organ samples:



Dr. Tara Sander Lee of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, wrote an article in March, 2021, about a study done on February 9, 2021, which replicated Ralph Baric's precision LungOnly mice models and used them to test the antiviral COVID pill, Molnupiravir (EIDD-2801). More about that study in this article. Her article, "A Grim Reminder That Fetal Tissue Market Is Still Open for Business," revealed the following facts:


A deep dive reveals that lung tissue from at least 12 aborted babies was used for the study. The babies were likely between 16 and 22 weeks of gestation.

She also explains that new fetal organ fragments must be implanted again when an experiment is concluded and a new experiment is begun:


Lung-only mice are “one and done” experiments. Once consumed, the body parts are discarded, and new parts from more recent abortions necessarily must be purchased to conduct more experiments.

Despite the inherent flaws and difficulties with engineering these mice models, there is a big demand for them for COVID research.


In March, 2020, during the initial surge of the COVID pandemic, the Science magazine reported that NIH researcher Kim Hasenkrug demanded that the Trump Administration's ban on funding for fetal research be lifted so US government researchers could provide special test COVID test mice models "with humanlike lungs created using human fetal tissue" for the testing of COVID vaccines and therapeutics.. Hasenkrug specifically cited the 2019 Wahl et al study conducted by Ralph Baric and his associates at UNC-Chapel Hill.


A March 18, 2020 Washington Post article relates how UNC researchers offered Kim Hasenkrug almost three dozen humanized mice models engrafted with human lung tissue, citing the Wahl et al study:



The article laments that Hasenkrug could not avail himself of the mice because of the Trump Administration ban, but an associate researcher from Canada, Kerry Lavender offered to take the mice to Canada since they were over a year old and would not survive much longer.


At the time the article was written, a decision by the Trump Administration had not been made regarding the offer.


The Washington Post article also claims that "a senior UNC scientist" has been cautioned by the university not to speak publicly about the research. Apparently, according to this December, 2018 Washington Post article, Kim Hasenkrug was also under a gag order by the Trump Administration.


Screenshot from the article:


UPDATE: I caught up with Kerry Lavender and discovered that she did indeed go to Canada where she is currently generating a continuous supply of Ralph Baric's Lung Only mice with engrafted fetal lung tissue for COVID-19 research.



Hasenkrug's woes aside, the Trump Administration granted an exemption to the fetal research funding ban on 26 June 2020 when the NIH awarded a $1.2 million grant to the Mouse Biology Program at the University of California to create a cadre of of humanized mice at the University of California-Devis to be supplied to COVID researchers to test the vaccine. The Mouse Biology Program at UC-Davis has contracted with the HHS since 2006 to create cohorts of mice humanized with human fetal tissue. The contracts required them to make two different types of humanized mice both of which needed to be made with human fetal livers and thymuses and other tissues as documented in this CNSNews article..


The specifications of one of the NIH grants given to the University of California in 2020 correspond with the 2019 Wahl et al. study, proposing to generate "generate two novel humanized mouse models that can be infected by SARS-CoV-2, faithfully mimic the human disease, and be used to test for promising treatments." They will be used to test "to test the effectiveness of candidate FDA approved drugs for their effectiveness in halting COVID19 "


Screenshot from the NIH Reporter website, showing the date and amount of the grant:




Screenshot of the description of the grant from the same website:




An Industrial News article about the grant gives additional details, that the mice be susceptible to the COVID-19 virus and that they can be used to reproduce human COVID-19 disease.


This corresponds with the objective of the Wahl et al. study as listed in the Abstract section of the study:


Lung-only mice and bone marrow/liver/thymus-lung humanized mice substantially increase the number of human pathogens that can be studied in vivo, facilitating the in vivo testing of therapeutics.

The Lung Only mouse and the BLT-L mouse precision test models were specifically created for coronavirus vaccine testing and are in high demand which it makes it very likely that the Trump Administration lifted its ban on federal funding of fetal research to fund the production of mice at the University of California so researchers could be supplied with these very specialized and highly humanized mice.





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