Déjà vu: Hundreds of New Coronaviruses Already Spilled Over into Chinese Populations

by Emmanuel Nuvaga · Published February 22, 2020

Researchers have found about 400 novel coronaviruses swabbed from bats in China already made their way into local populations and maybe reservoirs of cyclical outbreaks given that Covid-19 is just two decades from the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak.

This means that China will continue to be a hot zone for potential future epidemics especially given the fact that there are several markets that sell these bats and other exotic animals.

Articles reviewed for this post:

Aizenman, N. (2020, February 20). New Research: Bats Harbor Hundreds Of Coronaviruses, And Spillovers Aren’t Rare. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/20/807742861/new-research-bats-harbor-hundreds-of-coronaviruses-and-spillovers-arent-rare

Li, H., Mendelsohn, E., Zong, C., Zhang, W., Hagan, E., Wang, N., … Daszak, P. (2019). Human-animal interactions and bat coronavirus spillover potential among rural residents in Southern China. Biosafety and Health, 1(2), 84–90. doi: 10.1016/j.bsheal.2019.10.004. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590053619300308