Are you aware of BANAL-20-52's spike? That's a bat virus, and it's only 16 AA substitutions (plus no FCS) away from SARS-CoV-2: https://twitter.com/jbloom_lab/

Are you aware of BANAL-20-52's spike? That's a bat virus, and it's only 16 AA substitutions (plus no FCS) away from SARS-CoV-2: https://twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1440309655087902720?lang=en https://twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1440309655087902720?la... I've seen no explanation for why the spike of a bat virus would be so well-adapted to human ACE2, but apparently that one is. That's an argument against the need for an intermediate host, whether that host is natural (e.g. a non-bat wild animal) or not (e.g. hACE2 mice in the lab).