- Chinese researchers discovered a new coronavirus that uses the same cell surface protein to enter human cells as the virus that causes COVID-19. The researchers published their findings in the journal Cell.
- The virus is found in bats and closely matches the one that led to the global pandemic in 2020.
- The first known human case of COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan in November 2019, and more than 1.2 million Americans have died as a result of the disease.
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Chinese researchers discovered a new coronavirus that uses the same cell surface protein to enter human cells as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
The report, featured in the journal Cell, notes that the HKU5-CoV-2 is a virus found in bats. The coronavirus variant closely matches the one that lead to the global pandemic in 2020.
Researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, the same lab accused of leaking the COVID-19 virus, report the bat virus carries a risk of animal-to-human transmission. However, researchers admit human testing remains to be investigated.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, tells Reuters that reaction to the study is “overblown.” He said there is a lot of immunity in the population to similar COVID-19 and SARS viruses compared with 2019.
The study itself noted that the virus has significantly less binding affinity than SARS-CoV-2.
The first known human case of COVID-19 was found in Wuhan in November 2019. Per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), More than 1.2 million Americans have died as a result of COVID-19. The World Health Organization reports more than 7 million deaths worldwide.
