Although humans' irresponsible and indiscriminate use of the natural environment could be one of the causes behind the recent coronavirus crisis, bats have been targeted for their role as natural reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens.
Maurice Hilleman is probably the scientist who has prevented the highest number of deaths and illnesses from infection in the history of medicine. He and his team obtained or improved more than 25 vaccines against viruses and bacteria.
Every historical period has had its epidemic executioner, and it has almost always been the ecological changes between human communities and the environment that have caused changes in pathogenicity and epidemic diseases.
We need to rethink many aspects of our daily lives, of our values, of our economic and cultural practices; in short, of our coexistence with the rest of nature and, especially, of our respect for non-human animals.
Most probably, the current coronavirus1 pandemic represents the uncertain epilogue of an epidemiological period marked by the renewed prominence of the infectious disease in the last decades of the twentieth century
Next time we could be facing an even deadlier virus than SARS-CoV-2. Now is the perfect time to start working.
The current healthcare crisis forces us to reflect on the way to act, the resources available to science, or the importance of good communication.
Knowing the detailed genomes of viruses and their phylogenies allows us to understand the origin of the outbreak. Was it a zoonosis from bats or were other hosts involved? Where did this fatal transition occur? What is the rate of change of the virus?
Fernando González Candelas, Full Professor of Genetics at the University of Valencia, explains how the virus affects children.
This article examines the figure of the scientist in such fictional narratives and what these characterizations indicate about public attitudes toward science in our contemporary world.