CMB Breaking News 🚨📰🗞️🗞️

“New Bat Coronavirus Identified in China Raises Concerns Over Potential Human Infection"🚨🚨

A team of Chinese researchers, headed by the renowned virologist Shi Zhengli, nicknamed "Batwoman" for her deep knowledge of bat-related viruses, has identified a new coronavirus called HKU5-CoV-2. This discovery came from their studies of bat coronaviruses, conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology—a place that’s sparked plenty of discussion about where COVID-19 might have come from. The new virus is part of the same family as MERS, a dangerous coronavirus that’s made the leap to humans before. What’s got scientists on edge is that HKU5-CoV-2 can attach to human cells using the same ACE2 receptors that SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 culprit, exploits.

So far, they’ve only poked at this virus in the lab—testing it on human cell cultures and small organ-like models—where it’s shown it can indeed infect human cells. But whether it could actually make people sick is still up in the air. The research suggests that viruses like this one, lurking in bats, might be able to hop to humans, either straight from the source or via some go-between animal. While it’s a heads-up about a possible threat, the scientists say they need to dig deeper to figure out just how worried we should be.🦇😳