New Bat Coronavirus ‘Discovered’ Poses ‘High Risk of Spillover to Humans’
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.
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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