bat virus ancestor to COVID-19

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China: bat virus ancestor to the COVID-19  
Date: Sun 5 Jul 2020 8:15 AM EDT,
Source: Daily Mail [abridged, edited]
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8491491/Coronaviruss-closest-ancestor-SEVEN-YEARS-ago-bat-infested-China.html>;

A virus 96% identical to the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 was
found in an abandoned mine in China 7 years ago, according to an
investigation. The bat-infested copper mine in Mojiang, western China,
was home to a coronavirus that left six adult men sick with pneumonia
and 3 of them died.

Scientists took samples from the bats' feces, found on the cave
floor, and stored them in a laboratory 1000 mi  away
in Wuhan for years while studying them.

 That virus, named RaBtCoV/4991 at the time,
now appears to be the closest relative to SARS-Cov-2, which is causing
Covid-19, a Sunday Times investigation has found. The virus has
reportedly been featured in only one widely-available scientific paper that
didn't mention the fact it had caused fatal pneumonia in humans.

The discovery that something very similar to Covid-19 was circulating
in bats in Mojiang - half of bats tested in the mine were carrying at
least one type of coronavirus - has raised doubts about the true
source of SARS-CoV-2.

The official story has been that the Covid-19 virus jumped from an
animal - thought to be a pangolin - to humans at Hunan Seafood Market
in Wuhan city. From there it spread throughout the population in the
densely-populated city, which is a transport hub, and then onto trains
and planes and around the world within weeks. 

But it could have been spreading elsewhere first, and even Chinese
authorities have since admitted that the market was a 'victim' of the
epidemic rather than its source. Dr Peter Daszak, a British animal
disease expert, told The Sunday Times: 'It didn't emerge in the
market, it emerged somewhere else.' He suggested it was already
spreading somewhere around the mine in rural Mojiang and then broke
out in Wuhan, which has a population of 11 million people. 'Fair
assumption is that it spilt into animals in southern China and was
then shipped in, via infected people, or animals associated with
trade, to Wuhan.'

The RaBtCoV/4991 virus appears to have caused an illness which sounds
extremely similar to Covid-19, and has a genetic code 96.2% matching
with it.

The 6 men who fell ill with the virus in 2012 did so after being
assigned to the mine to clear out the bat feces - it is not clear
exactly how it infected them. But the men, who ranged in age from 30
to 63, all required intensive care treatment in hospital. All had
high fevers, body aches and coughs, and 5 of them were struggling to
breathe.

All are symptoms that match those of Covid-19, and they tested
negative for all the tropical diseases the doctors could think of, but
2 of them later tested positive in blood samples for having been
infected with SARS or a SARS-like coronavirus.

The theory is the latest in a long line suggesting the possible origin
of the Covid-19 virus, many of which lead back to wild bats in China.

[Byline: Sam Blanchard]

bat virus ancestor to COVID-19

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