News outlets globally have, perhaps sensing that the terror of the dreaded ‘Omicron‘ variant is wearing off, begun breathlessly reporting the new dread of the world the so-called “new COVID variant” to be known as “NeoCoV”. The new virus was claimed to threaten higher infection and mortality rates than previous strains of the virus that caused the global pandemic. Apparently, the previous naming convention was abandoned or they decided to throw the last 9 letters of the Greek alphabet out the window… who’s to say? Nevertheless, this initial reporting has proven to be oversimplified and far too alarming according to updates from The Independent.
According to the British publication,
“The reports cite a study, not yet peer-reviewed, published by Chinese researchers in the BioRxiv journal earlier this week.
NeoCoV is not in fact a new variant of the coronavirus that has caused the global pandemic. Instead, it is derived from a different type of coronavirus related to Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers-CoV.)
Mers-CoV whose origins are not fully understood, is a virus that was transferred to humans from infected dromedary (Arabian) camels.”
It’s A COVID19 Variant! Except That It’s Not… And It’s Like 10 Years Old
Like COVID19, the virus is zoonotic, or transmissible between animals and humans, contractable by either direct or indirect contact. However, unlike COVID19… the so-called “NeoCov” has been around since 2012, with the World Health Organization being well aware of its existence.
“Mers-CoV has been identified in dromedaries in several countries in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia,” the World Health Organisation says.
“In total, 27 countries have reported cases since 2012, leading to 858 known deaths due to the infection and related complications.”
They continued,”According to the analysis of different virus genomes it is believed that it may have originated in bats and later transmitted to camels at some point in the distant past.”
Yes, It’s Carried By Bats… But No… It’s Not Spreading In Humans
“NeoCov” is a genetic relative to Mers-CoV (COVID19) and it does circulate in bats. And according to the study that was published in mid-January, it could definitely cause problems if it is transferred from bats to humans in that the antibodies that have been developed to combat COVID19 simply won’t work against it. And yes, the study does also suggest there’s a potential threat of NeoCoV infecting humans but there’s no evidence at all that it has done so already or any possible indication of how fatal or transmissible it might be. And finally, most importantly The Independent reported, “Laboratory tests also suggest that NeoCoV’s ability to infect human cells is poor.
“We need to see more data confirming human infection and associated severity before getting anxious,” Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, told The Independent.
“The pre-print [study] suggests that infection of human cells with NeoCoV is extremely inefficient.
“What this does highlight, however, is the need to be vigilant about the spill over of coronavirus infections from animals (mainly bats) to humans.
“This is an essential lesson we need to learn that requires better integration of infectious disease research in humans and animals.”
At the end of the day, this smacks of more of a new issue of ‘fear porn’ to gin up a new panic as fears of the Omicron variant fade and vaccination and masking mandates are dismantled around the world. It’s almost as if there are people and groups, who don’t want to see humanity wake up from the authoritarian nightmare COVID spawned.