Chinese researchers, led by a virologist whose work had fueled concerns about a possible COVID-19 lab leak, have discovered a new bat coronavirus similar to the one that causes COVID-19 that is capable of infecting humans.
The virus, called HKU5-CoV-2, can enter human cells through the ACE2 receptor, the same gateway for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that sparked a global pandemic five years ago, according to a study recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Cell.
The lead researcher is Shi Zhengli, who, for years, led work on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab that has been under scrutiny amid the ongoing questions about the origins of COVID-19.
The researchers collected nearly 1,000 anal swabs from pipistrellus bats across five Chinese provinces and took them to the state-owned Wuhan research institute.
The virus belongs to a distinct lineage of coronaviruses that also include the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus. Lab experiments indicate this virus strain may infect a wide range of mammals. The HKU5-CoV-2 has the potential to jump from one species to another, researchers said, noting the recent detection of viral sequences closely related to HKU5-CoV in farmed minks.
The virus doesn’t enter human cells as readily as the SARS-CoV-2 virus, suggesting the risk of its “emergence in human populations should not be exaggerated,” the paper states. It also identified antibodies and antiviral drugs targeting the virus.
Findings about the virus raised concerns from Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist and laboratory director at Rutgers University’s Waksman Institute of Microbiology, who has been critical of the Wuhan Institute’s virus experiments.
“In nature, this virus poses minimal threat to humans,” he told The Epoch Times on Feb. 25.
“However, laboratory enhancement of transmissibility or pathogenicity, this virus could create a highly extremely threatening new bioweapons agent and pandemic pathogen.”
Ebright expressed concern that the newly discovered virus is being reported and researched by Shi, given her past line of research that he described as “reckless.”
The Chinese foreign ministry, in a Feb. 12 press conference, denied that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has engaged in gain of function studies of coronavirus.
Shi left her former facility and joined Guangzhou National Laboratory as a researcher in May 2024. The lab was set up in 2021 to focus on significant respiratory diseases and prevention, according to its website.
The virologist has posted hiring notices for postdoctoral researchers to join her team to study emerging infectious diseases, molecular epidemiology, cross-species viral transmission, and molecular mechanisms of pneumonia from respiratory viral infections.
A dozen researchers from the Wuhan Institute, along with six from her current lab, were coauthors of the February research paper.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was aware of the Cell study but that “there is no reason to believe it currently poses a concern to public health.”
“The publication referenced demonstrates that the bat virus can use a human protein to enter cells in the laboratory, but they have not detected infections in humans,” Paul Prince, a spokesperson for the center, told The Epoch Times.
He added that the agency will “continue to monitor viral disease activity and provide important updates to the public.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Shi for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
