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Chinese scientists are worried. They have just discovered that NeoCov, a coronavirus known for ten years, is missing only one mutation to infect human cells and cause a new pandemic.
The Sars-CoV-2 pandemic has taught us that humans are vulnerable to unknown viruses. And unfortunately, as the waves of Covid-19 follow one another, we are not immune to the threat of a new virus, which could trigger a new epidemic.
NeoCoV, bat virus
And that’s what worries Chinese scientists in Wuhan, the city where it all started for Sars-CoV-2. Today, they are interested in another coronavirus, NeoCoV, which usually circulates in bats.
Indeed, in a study published on the bioRxiv platform on January 25 (but not yet reviewed by their peers), they warned of this dangerous virus which could mutate and contaminate humans. Indeed, according to the authors, a single mutation would be sufficient to allow it to infect human cells and thus trigger an epidemic.
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What should we think ?
This virus, NeoCov, is biologically close to Mers-CoV, a virus responsible for several epidemics in the Middle East, which had a fairly high mortality rate of around 35% of cases. If the NeoCoV virus mutates and can infect humans, it could be a real disaster, especially since the infection could not be neutralized by the antibodies developed in the context of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic.
Clearly, having been vaccinated or infected with Covid-19 would not protect against this virus. But no one knows if this virus will mutate and even less when. However, scientists remain vigilant about this type of phenomenon in order to anticipate it as much as possible.