{"id":8091,"date":"2022-06-12T13:59:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-12T13:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8091"},"modified":"2022-06-12T13:59:13","modified_gmt":"2022-06-12T13:59:13","slug":"can-we-stop-the-next-pandemic-by-seeking-out-deadly-viruses-in-the-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8091","title":{"rendered":"Can we stop the next pandemic by seeking out deadly viruses in the wild?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\n&#8220;Critics \u2014 including researchers who study biosecurity and biosafety \u2014 argue it doesn\u2019t really pass a cost-benefit analysis. In some ways, virus hunting is looking for a needle in a haystack \u2014 the handful of viruses that might cross over to humans amid tens of thousands that won\u2019t \u2014 when we don\u2019t even know how to tell needles from hay, or what to do with a needle once we identify one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And some experts are raising another, even sharper question: What if viral discovery is not just an ineffective tactic but a terrible idea, one that might not only fail to prevent the next pandemic but potentially even make it more likely?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Monitoring the interface between humans and animals for pandemic prevention has value, particularly when the programs are narrowly targeted at certain objectives: say, a focus on reducing spillover, or surveillance of potential animal infections, or studying viruses that have already spilled over into humans. Research published&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-022-04788-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">last month in&nbsp;<em>Nature<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;projects that global warming could drive 4,000 viruses to spread for the first time between mammals, including potentially humans and animals, by 2070, underscoring the changing threat from zoonotic spillovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if therisks of virus hunting are higher than the odds of avirus crossing over into humans and sparking a pandemic naturally, then viral discovery doesn\u2019t just look inefficient. It looks like a badidea.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/2022\/5\/7\/22973296\/virus-hunting-discovery-deep-vzn-global-virome-project\">https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/2022\/5\/7\/22973296\/virus-hunting-discovery-deep-vzn-global-virome-project<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Critics \u2014 including researchers who study biosecurity and biosafety \u2014 argue it doesn\u2019t really pass a cost-benefit analysis. In some ways, virus hunting is looking for a needle in a haystack \u2014 the handful of viruses that might cross over to humans amid tens of thousands that won\u2019t \u2014 when we don\u2019t even know how to tell needles from hay, or what to do with a needle once we identify one.<br \/>\nAnd some experts are raising another, even sharper question: What if viral discovery is not just an ineffective tactic but a terrible idea, one that might not only fail to prevent the next pandemic but potentially even make it more likely?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Monitoring the interface between humans and animals for pandemic prevention has value, particularly when the programs are narrowly targeted at certain objectives: say, a focus on reducing spillover, or surveillance of potential animal infections, or studying viruses that have already spilled over into humans. Research published last month in Nature projects that global warming could drive 4,000 viruses to spread for the first time between mammals, including potentially humans and animals, by 2070, underscoring the changing threat from zoonotic spillovers.<\/p>\n<p>But if the risks of virus hunting are higher than the odds of a virus crossing over into humans and sparking a pandemic naturally, then viral discovery doesn\u2019t just look inefficient. It looks like a bad idea.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[50,540,811,496],"class_list":["post-8091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-medical","tag-pandemic","tag-science","tag-virus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8092,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091\/revisions\/8092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}