
Pangolins are the most illegally traded animal in the world, and used in traditional Chinese medicine
Xiang is "convinced" of the link between the coronavirus and pangolins, as was suggested by a study from South China Agricultural University researchers in early February, who studied more than 1,000 samples from wild animals.
Xiang says the evidence for those claims actually "already exists" in a
paper from October 2019, which published genome sequences of sick pangolins smuggled from Malaysia to China, finding evidence of coronaviruses.
This latest novel coronavirus could likely be "a hybrid of two very similar coronaviruses" as suggested in another
recent paper, Xiang says.
"The virus was probably unable to infect humans directly through bats, so it had to go through an intermediate animal to further mutate in order to infect humans," Xiang told DW.
Humans defense mechanisms keep us safe — mostly
While the devastation of such outbreaks is difficult to predict, Stuart Neil, head of virology at King's College London, says "in the grand scheme of things," events like this "don't happen very often."
"We're probably exposed to these viruses from other species much more often than we get transfers of new viruses from animals and these sustained epidemics," he told DW.
The reason for that, Neil says, is "due to our intrinsic defensive mechanisms." There is no such thing as an inherently deadly virus, he points out, because what may be harmless to one species, as shown by the numerous coronaviruses that circulate in bats, may be deadly to another.
"It's entirely dependent on the defense mechanisms of the host species and whether they can live in harmony with a virus or not."
Such epidemics are becoming more likely, though, as humans increasingly encroach on the habitats of wild animals, he warns, saying that "humans are exposed to these viruses because of how they behave and interact with animals."
Pangolins are now confirmed carriers of viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2. But as with SARS and MERS, bats are the most likely original source. Scientists believe bats' unique genetic quirks make them ideal hosts.
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