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If the previous couple of years have taught us something, it’s that vigilance is essential. We do must intently observe how viruses in animals are growing, and be ready to sort out a soar to people. We don’t must panic, although. Not but, anyway.
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We’ve been right here earlier than. Scientists have been attempting to work out how chicken flu may make the soar to people again within the 2000s, as Emily Singer wrote.
Close monitoring of viruses’ ever-changing genomes has helped us navigate the covid-19 pandemic. It can be very important for future public well being threats too, as Linda Nordling wrote final yr.
It takes a very long time to make a flu vaccine. But the subsequent technology of mRNA vaccines might shield in opposition to flu—together with a bunch of different viruses—and could possibly be whipped up in a fraction of the time it takes to make current vaccines, as I wrote final month.
New mutations that permit viruses to leap from animals to people can occur anyplace, at any time. But that received’t cease some folks from insisting they’ve been concocted by scientists in a lab. Shi Zhengli, who has lengthy studied coronaviruses in bats on the Wuhan Institute of Virology, needed to take care of these accusations through the covid-19 pandemic. Jane Qiu coated her story final yr.
Tech Review has been overlaying pandemics since 1956. Apparently again then it was completely high-quality to write that “the people of this world have been molested by a long series of awesome epidemics.”
From across the net
Emergency companies are getting false misery calls from the iPhones and Apple Watches of skiers and health fans who’re very a lot alive and nicely. (The New York Times)
Here’s what US states are doing to abortion rights in 2023. Some are attempting to guard these rights, whereas others are trying to strip them additional away. (ProPublica)