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How Bats and COVID Canceled Halloween

Steve Baragona

   Bats, a symbol of Halloween, may be responsible for canceling it this
   year.

   The coronavirus that has grounded trick-or-treaters likely came from
   bats.

   These creatures of the night have evolved a spooky ability to harbor a
   number of viruses that can kill humans -- without getting sick
   themselves.

   How they do it may hold the key to immortality -- or a longer life,
   anyway.

   Guilt by association

   Though there is no smoking gun showing that the coronavirus causing the
   COVID-19 pandemic came from bats, the virus is closely related to
   several others they harbor.

   Bats also are known to carry rabies and the Marburg hemorrhagic fever
   virus, and they are lead suspects as the source of Ebola and the 2003
   severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

   It sure seems like they carry a lot of nasty viruses.

   But "maybe we just have a lot of bat viruses because there's lots of
   bats," said University of Glasgow researcher Daniel Streicker.

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