China Reports New Coronavirus “With Pandemic Potential”
SUMMARY
Stocks took a midday nosedive Friday, and traders are pointing fingers at a chilling report out of China. The Daily Mail says researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology—yep, that place—found a new coronavirus, HKU5-CoV-2, lurking in bats. Sound familiar? It’s giving Covid déjà vu, and people are nervous. Led by virologist Shi Zhengli, aka “Batwoman,” the team says this virus is a close cousin to MERS, which kills up to a third of its victims, and it infiltrates human cells much like SARS-CoV-2 did. Part of the merbecovirus family, it’s been spotted in minks and pangolins—those Covid middlemen—hinting it could jump species easily. The study, published in a top journal, warns of a “higher potential for interspecies infection,” though they’re still digging into whether it could really spill over to humans. The Wuhan tie-in isn’t helping calm the lab-leak theory crowd either. With markets jittery over a $2.7 trillion options expiration, this news hit like a match on dry grass.
