Fifteen years ago, scientists discovered a cave in southern China that held viruses almost identical to the one that has killed nearly 500 people today and the ones that caused the SARS and MERS outbreaks decades ago.
The cave, whose exact location is being kept secret, is inhabited by wild bats that have been found to carry a “rich gene pool of SARS-related coronaviruses,” said Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. nonprofit organization that monitors wildlife diseases that could pose a pandemic risk.-- More...