We generated and characterized a chimeric virus...

Mar 19 2020

… Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike …. can efficiently use …. human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV…

… Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein…

See the original article here https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985.pdf and make your own conclusions

Comments on two blogs re: chimeric virus

Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research