The White House announced plans to crackdown on viruses manipulation research only days after DailyMail.com uncovered similar research being undertaken at Boston University.

In a national biodefense strategy unveiled last week, the Biden Administration laid out plans to prevent and respond to future biological disaster situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report highlights the risk of ‘accidental biological threats’ caused by accidents in biosafety labs which work with dangerous pathogens.

Last Monday, DailyMail.com revealed that Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, had developed a hybrid strain of Covid with an 80 per cent lethality rate in mice.

Researchers defended the work, claiming it could advance our understanding of Covid and how to treat and vaccinate against it, but critics warn the benefits do not outweigh the risk of a potential leak.

Biden’s biosafety plans, which were published two days later on October 19, says the ‘United States has a responsibility to ensure our technology, development, and assistance programs do not exacerbate this risk [a lab leak] unintentionally’.

The White House report also accepts that the ‘risk of laboratory accidents may be increasing with the rise in the number of laboratories around the world conducting high-risk life sciences research and research with potential pandemic pathogens’.

There is no suggestion that the report is a response to the work at Boston University, and DailyMail.com has approached the White House for comment.

But the report gives a nod to the potential dangers of so-called ‘gain of function’ research, when a virus is enhanced to be more dangerous or infectious so scientists can get ahead of potential outbreaks or develop therapies.

Boston University has argued that their research was not gain of function, as the original wild strain killed 100 per cent of mice exposed to it, which they argue means their work actually reduced the lethality of the virus.

Researchers equipped the original Wuhan strain of Covid with Omicron’s spike protein – the part which helps it invade cells and makes it more infectious. Critics say the combination of increased infectiousness and lethality made it dangerous.