Significance of Pangolin Viruses in Human Pandemic Remains Murky

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=53849"><span class="small">James Gorman, The New York Times</span></a>

Monday, 30 March 2020 08:15

Gorman writes: "Pangolins, once suspected as the missing link from bats to humans in the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, may not have played that role, some scientists say, although the animals do host viruses that are similar to the new human coronavirus."

A pangolin rescued from an animal trafficking operation in Medan, Indonesia, in 2017. (photo: Ivan Damanik/ZUMA Wire, via Alamy)

Significance of Pangolin Viruses in Human Pandemic Remains Murky

By James Gorman, The New York Times

30 March 20

Scientists haven�t found evidence that the new coronavirus jumped from pangolins to people, but they do host very similar viruses

angolins, once suspected as the missing link from bats to humans in the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, may not have played that role, some scientists say, although the animals do host viruses that are similar to the new human coronavirus.

Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, an organization that works on animal-to-human spillover diseases, said that accumulating evidence on pangolins made it �doubtful that this species played a role in the outbreak.�

�We need to keep looking for the original reservoir� � likely a bat,� he said, adding that the potential intermediate host would likely be another mammal species that�s more widely traded in the Yunnan-to-Wuhan corridor of China.

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