A newly discovered coronavirus in China has raised fresh concerns over its power to spread among humans and killing them like it did five years ago. In a situation reminiscent of the early days of Covid, scientists at the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology have again identified the new strain in bats.
Named HKU5-CoV-2, the virus shares striking similarities with the one that caused the pandemic, fueling fears that a similar outbreak could occur just two years after the global crisis was declared over. The newly identified virus has even more similarities to MERS, a more lethal coronavirus that has a fatality rate of up to one-third of those infected.
Coronavirus Fears Spread Again
Virologist Shi Zhengli, often referred to as "Batwoman" for her research on coronaviruses, led the study, which was published in a leading scientific journal. Experiments revealed that HKU5-CoV-2 enters human cells in the same manner as SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19.
In their findings, published in the journal Cell, the Beijing-backed researchers admitted that the virus posed a " high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts."
MERS is an infectious respiratory disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans and between people. It leads to symptoms such as fever, coughing, shortness of breath, diarrhea, and vomiting, and can be deadly in severe cases.
In the U.S., only two people have ever tested positive for MERS, both in May 2014, with each case linked to travel from the Middle East. Currently, no vaccine exists for the virus.
The newly identified HKU5-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that belongs to the merbecovirus family of pathogens.
Merbecoviruses have been found in minks and pangolins—the animal suspected of serving as an intermediary for Covid transmission from bats to humans.
Early Warnings
This, the scientists wrote, "suggests frequent cross-species transmission of these viruses between bats and other animal species." They added: "This study reveals a distinct lineage of HKU5-CoVs in bats that efficiently use human [cells] and underscores their potential zoonotic risk."
HKU5-CoV viruses were first detected in bats in 2006, but new findings indicate that HKU5-CoV-2 has a "higher potential for interspecies infection' than others."
However, researchers note that the possibility of HKU5-CoV-2 spreading to humans "remains to be investigated."
The study was conducted by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the center of the lab-leak theory—a claim that Covid-19 was engineered in a Chinese laboratory and unintentionally released to the public.
According to the latest research, a zoonotic spillover is believed to have caused the Covid-19 pandemic, as bats host the highest number of coronaviruses and serve as natural reservoirs for them.
Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence agencies hold a "low confidence" assessment that Covid-19 may have leaked from the Wuhan lab. While SARS and MERS have confirmed instances of animal-to-human transmission, the new study says that the "intermediate hosts for SARS-CoV-2 remain unclear."
