New SARS-like virus can jump directly from bats to humans, no treatment available

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered a new SARS-like virus that can jump directly from its bat hosts to humans without mutation. However, researchers point out that if the SARS-like virus did jump, it is unclear whether it could spread from human to human. The discovery, reported in Nature Medicine, is notable not only because there is no treatment for this newly discovered virus, but also because it highlights an ongoing debate over the government’s decision to suspend all gain of function experiments on a variety of select agents earlier this year. The move has substantially limited the development of vaccines or treatments for these pathogens should there be an outbreak. “Studies have predicted the existence of nearly 5,000 coronaviruses in bat populations and some of these have the potential to emerge as human pathogens,” said senior author Ralph Baric, PhD, a professor of epidemiology at the...