Scientists unravel a major mystery behind the Covid-19 pandemic

Researchers have made an unexpected discovery which may finally explain why Covid spreads so easily and will never leave us.

Covid uses “multiple doors” to jump from one species to another, which may explain why the virus spreads so easily and will never leave us, researchers have found.

Throughout the pandemic, there was a lot of debate about how the virus spread through infiltration of the ACE2 protein found in human cells.

However, scientists from the University of Virginia have discovered that ACE2 isn’t required for infection, and instead, the virus has other methods of infecting.

“The virus that causes Covid-19 uses ACE2 as the front door to infect cells, but we’ve found that if the front door is blocked, it can also use the back door, or the windows,” co-author Dr Peter Kasson said.

Researchers have discovered how Covid uses ‘multiple doors’ to jump from species to another. Picture: David Crosling

“This means the virus can keep spreading as it infects a new species until it adapts to use a particular species’ front door. So we have to watch out for new viruses doing the same thing to infect us.”

Dr Kasson said the findings may help explain why the virus was able to so easily infect other species, including domestic dogs and cats which resulted in millions of animals being killed.

More than seven million people have died from Covid globally, with the UK and US battling a new strain “Eris”, which has been labelled a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organisation.

“Coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 have already caused one pandemic and several near misses that we know of,” Dr Kasson said.

“That suggests there are more out there, and we need to learn how they spread and what to watch out for.”

Originally published as Scientists unravel a major mystery behind the Covid-19 pandemic