New Coronavirus Discovered in Chinese Bats: merbecovirus uses same ACE2 receptor to infect as COVID

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New Coronavirus Discovered in Chinese Bats​

HKU5-CoV-2 was found by a Chinese research team led by virologist Shi Zhengli, known as "Batwoman" for her work on coronaviruses, especially at the Wuhan Institute, which has been at the center of the theory suggesting COVID-19 came from a lab leak—something Shi has denied.

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). [emphasis added; this does not appear to be spreading in humans... at the moment.] HKU5-CoV-2 was able to infect human cell cultures in the mini-human organ models the scientists used.

Article in Cell

Bat-infecting merbecovirus HKU5-CoV lineage 2 can use human ACE2 as a cell entry receptor​

It is important to note that HKU5-CoV-2 was sequenced after 2019 and that it did not exist in the Wuhan lab at the time of the covid19 outbreak. This is ongoing research that if anything supports the zoonotic theory of origins

Wuhan lab samples hold no close relatives to virus behind COVID

Shi Zhengli, the virologist at centre of COVID lab-leak theory, reveals coronavirus sequences from Wuhan institute.

www.nature.com