SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 are also
neuroinvasive and also
penetrate the blood-brain barrier, and both can also kill
100% of hACE2 mice in experiments.
There is literally nothing novel or unique about this “new” virus, in that regard. The point of the article is to terrify people.
"It can invade the brain!"
COVID-19 already does that.
"It killed all the lab mice! That means it'll kill all of us, too!"
K18-hACE2 mice are genetically modified to express human ACE2 all over the place and are extremely vulnerable to any kind of sarbecovirus that uses ACE2 as its entry receptor. They're a useful experimental model of a SARS infection in humans, but they don't replicate all aspects of the disease and can't be used to calculate mortality in humans. 100% lethality in these mice when exposed to SARS is
extremely common. Both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 will utterly annihilate K18-hACE2 lab mice, even though their IFR in humans is much, much lower.
The impression the article is trying to give off, that this new virus will invade all our brains and instakill us, is absurdly wrong.