New Bat Coronavirus ‘Discovered’ Poses ‘High Risk of Spillover to Humans’
Dr. Shi Zhengli announced her team has ‘identified’ a new virus with similar infection pathway as covid pathogen.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall my posts mentioning Shi Zhengli, the infamous Chinese virologist called “Bat Woman” due to her extensive research on bat-borne viruses, particularly SARS-like coronaviruses. She was part of the team that brought COVID-19 to the world.
As a reminder, Shi denied that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source of the contagion and minimized the number of bats being studied at the facility. Video demonstrated that the institute had a large number of bats, and proper biosafety protocol was not being followed.
She’s back in the news, this time because her team ‘discovered’ a new coronavirus, designated HKU5-CoV-2.
Research indicates the pathogen uses the same receptor cells to infect organisms as SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19. Further studies suggest there is a high potential for human infection.
Hundreds of coronaviruses exist but only a few can infect humans, including SARS, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).
This new one (HKU5-CoV-2) uses the ACE2 receptor to infect organisms—SARS-CoV-2 also uses the ACE2 receptor for infection.
HKU5-CoV-2 is a coronavirus belonging to the merbecovirusgroup, which also includes the virus that causes MERS.
It has a higher potential to infect humans than other coronaviruses because of the way it binds to human ACE2, making it similar to SARS-CoV-2 and NL63 (a common cold virus).
Researchers came to this conclusion after using a technique called Cryo-EM, which uses a powerful microscope.
HKU5-CoV-2 was able to infect human cell cultures in the mini-human organ models the scientists used.
A new bat coronavirus that has the capacity to spread to humans, similar to the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, has been discovered.
HKU5-CoV-2 was found by a Chinese research team led by virologist Shi Zhengli, known as “Batwoman” for her work on coronaviruses,… pic.twitter.com/tcxCNYypjc
— Camus (@newstart_2024) February 21, 2025
The designation HKU5-CoV-2 refers to a newly identified lineage of the bat coronavirus HKU5.
“HKU5” refers to the original Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5, first identified in Hong Kong Japanese pipistrelle bats. The “HKU” likely stands for the University of Hong Kong, where the initial discovery was made.
CoV is the fun “coronavirus” portion of the name.
2 denotes a second strain that has been identified. It would be interesting to get information on genetics to see if a “furin cleavage site” is the hallmark of man-altered genetics.
The team’s findings were published in Cell, highlighting that it posed a ‘high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts.’
There is even more concerning news. The new virus behaves more like MERS, with an infection fatality rate of 35%. This contrasts starkly with COVID-19, with a current infection fatality rate of 0.23%.
There are already mentions of pangolins in reports covering the new virus.
MERS is a contagious respiratory illness spread from animals to humans and from human to human. It causes fever, cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea and vomiting, and can be fatal in severe cases.
Only two patients in the US have ever tested positive for MERS – both in May 2014 -and each case was linked to travel from the Middle East. There is no vaccine against the virus.
The new HKU5-CoV-2 is a coronavirus belonging to the merbecovirus family of pathogens.
Merbecoviruses have been detected in minks and pangolins – the animal believed to be the intermediary for Covid between bats and humans.
Despite these capabilities, researchers emphasize that HKU5-CoV-2 is less potent than SARS-CoV-2. Its binding efficiency to human ACE2 is significantly weaker, and the risk of widespread human transmission is considered low at this stage. Let’s hope it stays this way.
But I have a better idea: How about stopping the quest for the most infectious and deadly pathogen….especially if it is tailored made to be so.
As always, I will keep an eye out for further developments related to this virus.
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Comments
Maybe there is a role for government censorship. Imagine if COVID reporting had been limited occasional references to a bad flu season. We would be trillions richer at the cost a some older and sickly people dying a couple of months sooner.
But, you have to keep the primary objective in mind – Trump not being re-elected in 2020.
China: that’s a nice country you have there, would be a shame if something should happen to it. Like another pandemic
The CCP is evil. And they just sent a warning to Trump that they are willing to be evil again.
If the “free world” ceased trade with them, or reduced it by, say, 50%, they’d be on their knees.
I would say that would be true a century ago but not so much anymore. They have really built up their country to match usand have vast resources. They aren’t the China of the 50’s anymore. Look at their robot killing machines. They scare me because they are perfecting pure robot soldiers. We have not come anywhere near them in this field so far. We squandered all our money on others instead of building up ourselves.
They didn’t suffer any consequences last time.
They suffered plenty of internal consequences, though we do owe them more.
Did China admit that they were lying about their COVID death total (yet)?
>”Let’s hope it stays this way.”
It won’t. The CCP military
bio-weaponsgain-of-function researchers at the Wuhan Institute won’t be able to resist enhancing this new virus (HKU5-CoV-2) to see just how infectious and deadly this virus can be made. If they haven’t already done so and are just waiting for the appropriate time to have yet another “accidental release” of a virus of significant health impact on the world population.If there is another accident we should be ready to make them sorry. China will continue to pull their dirty deeds until they receive a bloodied nose or two.
Discovered? Or, Created?
“Two weeks to flatten the curve!” ™
Why now? The elections are still 20 or so months away.
Tariffs
Yup, civilized countries use tariffs. Communist dictatorships use a life threatening bio-engineered virus.
Simple fix. Deny entry to any Chinese national. If they don’t shut down the lab under supervision of the US and Russia we shut down trade too. Enough with this crap. Time for FAFO!
If true – and I have considerable doubts about that – there is still time to control the infection at it’s source.
Nuke Wuhan.
Come on, let’s be responsible here. No need for nukes. Plenty of conventional ordnance that can do the job.
Nukes sterilize.
Let’s try and remember that China is a communist country and communists are liars.
Let’s also remember that the Deep State was funding the Wuhan lab/research and the Deep State is also full of liars.
In short, all governments are liars.
They are smarter than Arab liars.
Just take a look at the timelines:
1) Trump orders tariffs on China
2) Batwoman and a new virus reemerge
May I suggest a fuel-air-bomb on top of this and every other lab working on gain-of-function research?
It would be a real shame if the CDC and USAID funds ceased flowing to Dr. Shi Zhengli’s labs.
We need more Chinese reporters in the White House to clear this up. I remember the first time when Trump was president and he was giving a news conference in the Rose Garden and asserting the virus came from China:
Chinese reporter Jiang said to the president: “Why are you saying that to me – specifically – that I should ask China?”
President Trump said: “I’m not saying it specifically to anybody, I’m saying it to anybody that asks a nasty question.”
“That’s not a nasty question,” Jiang answered.
President Trump then shut down the press conference and walked out of the Rose Garden, leaving reporters open-mouthed.
Balls. Don’t get sucked into this evil crap again
No kidding. The same leaky lab has another virus. How about NO. Halt all traffic between the US and China and any other Nation which refuses to halt traffic to/from China. Problem solved. Reason 4123 to return US domestic manufacturing and to obtain varied sources of raw materials to keep a secure supply chain.
Another “here we go again” – this has to stop.
But I have a better idea: How about stopping the quest for the most infectious and deadly pathogen….especially if it is tailored made to be so.
I have an even better one: drop a JDAM on the Wuhan lab to crack it open, then a thermobaric bomb of sufficient size to vaporize every virus and bacteria in the place?
Of course they have……Trump is on a roll and they need a pandemic to derail him.