Evidence emerges that Wuhan scientists, on a grant from the Chinese National Science Foundation, have been working directly with University of North Carolina Researcher Ralph S. Baric, on functionalization of coronavirus to make it able to infect humans via the ACE2 gene receptor. This comes in light of the continuing global outbreaks of an airborne coronavirus able to infect humans, and resulting quarantine of 740M people across all provinces of China, as tens of thousands die in just months.

Bipartisan negotiators on Capitol Hill are finalizing work on an emergency spending bill for the coronavirus with a pricetag around $7.5 billion. The spending bill, which could be released on Tuesday, is expected to pass the House and Senate within the next two weeks.

Mainland China has reported 648 new confirmed coronavirus cases, taking its total to 76,936, and 97 new deaths, bringing its death toll to 2,442 as of Saturday.All but one of the deaths were in Hubei province, the outbreak's epicentre, which reported 630 of the new infections as its provincial capital

Influenza virus circulates in human, avian, and swine hosts, causing seasonal epidemic and occasional pandemic outbreaks. Influenza neuraminidase, a viral surface glycoprotein, has two sialic acid binding sites. The catalytic (primary) site, which also binds inhibitors such as oseltamivir carboxylate, is responsible for cleaving the sialic acid linkages that bind viral progeny to the host cell.

Update (1135ET) : It seems that Mr. Plummer made a habit of getting the biological material he was working on "stolen," as we found a report from 2009 in the Winnepeg Free Press that details the theft of 22 vials of biological material was "confirmed by scientific director Dr. Frank Plummer."

Earlier on Tuesday, we reported that the 'official' number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran had climbed to 14, and that one of the newly diagnosed patients was an Iranian Deputy Health Minister named Iraj Harirchi, who announced in a video on Tuesday that he would "certainly defeat corona".

Harvard University epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch is predicting the coronavirus "will ultimately not be containable" and, within a year, will infect somewhere between 40 and 70 percent of humanity, The Atlantic reports. But don't be too alarmed. Many of those people, Lipsitch clarifies, won