Saturday, September 25, 2021

Closest known relatives of virus behind COVID-19 found in Laos

Strange that these viruses are by far not as contagious/infectious to humans as the SARS-CoV-2 virus! Do they lack the Anthony Fauci financed gain of function research conducted at the Wuhan Virology Lab?

If these newly found viruses in Laos are so similar to SARS-CoV-2 why did they not jump to humans (zoonotic infection)? Because they are to hidden in caves? Are there no wet markets in Laos, only in China? There are definitely wet markets along the Mekong river!

Fear mongering and alarmism continues! Bogus news even from Nature journal! The new viruses are only about 95% identical, the missing 5% is how critical?

We are still not even capable to characterize RNA-based viruses very well (See my blog post)!

"Scientists have found three viruses in bats in Laos that are more similar to SARS-CoV-2 than any known viruses. Researchers say that parts of their genetic code bolster claims that the virus behind COVID-19 has a natural origin — but their discovery also raises fears that there are numerous coronaviruses with the potential to infect people. ...
Particularly concerning is that the new viruses contain receptor binding domains that are almost identical to that of SARS-CoV-2, and can therefore infect human cells. ...
To make the discovery, Marc Eloit, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and his colleagues in France and Laos, took saliva, faeces and urine samples from 645 bats in caves in northern Laos. In three horseshoe (Rhinolophus) bat species, they found viruses that are each more than 95% identical to SARS-CoV-2, which they named BANAL-52, BANAL-103 and BANAL-236. ...
Together with relatives of SARS-CoV-2 discovered in Thailand2, Cambodia3 and Yunnan in southern China4, the study demonstrates that southeast Asia is a “hotspot of diversity for SARS-CoV-2 related viruses”, ..."

Closest known relatives of virus behind COVID-19 found in Laos Studies of bats in China and Laos show southeast Asia is a hotspot for potentially dangerous viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2.

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