Friday, 7 February 2020

Pangolin's Revenge?

The world's most endangered Mammal is the Pangolin whose bite-protecting scales are much used in Chinese medicine. Some Chinese scientists reportedly believe that this scaly 'anteater' provides the link that enabled the coronavirus to jump between bats and humans(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/pangolins-might-have-spread-coronavirus-to-human). One has to point out, however, that the evidence is currently only based on the genetic similarity of the virus in the Pangolin and that in our own species. The link is by no means, definitive.
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