Could the novel coronavirus infect North American bats?

As if the COVID-19 pandemic was not nightmarish enough, a new study suggests that humans could transmit the viral disease back into the animals from which it is believed to originate - bats. Such an event could devastate already fragile North American bat populations and create a new viral reservoir, making eradication of the virus extremely challenging, if not impossible. Earlier studies of phylogenetic evidence argued that the virus causing COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), evolved in an Old World bat family. But could humans pass the virus back to bats, in a phenomenon known as spillback? With COVID-19 exploding in the US, the US Geological Survey decided to recruit 31 scientists to assess the risk that SARS-CoV-2 could infect North American bats, according to Kevin Olival, a disease ecologist with EcoHealth Alliance (New York, NY) and the lead author of the study.